A New Version of Reality
by LeaderPinhead
Summary: It's amazing how tiny additions can change the course of a reality. The sequel to Pint Sized. [Pre and AU '07 movie-verse]
1. Prologue: One Added Factor

**AN:** I'm back! Did you miss me? Life's been working in my favor, and I managed to piece together a prologue during my classes when the professors were saying unimportant stuff :D Hey, it's better than drawing stars up and down the margins and making my notes unreadable.

As most of you will probably know already, this is a direct sequel to my recently completed story known as _Pint Sized._ New readers be aware that absolutely _none _of this will make sense unless you read the first story or at least the last two or three chapters of the previous story (which probably won't make sense unless you read the whole story, so…I guess you're stuck reading the whole thing :P).

Last but not least, **warnings. **Humor is my forte, but I'll be experimenting with drama, romance, and slightly more…darker tones. If it's anything worth warning about, I'll include it at the beginning of the chapter like this. For instance, this chapter includes infanticide. Most likely it won't get bad enough to up the rating, but I have no clue where my muse is taking me with this.

**DISCLAIMER:** I claim no ownership of the Transformers franchise as it belongs to Hasbro. This disclaimer applies to all chapters of this story. As an added addition, anything that seems vaguely familiar to the real world is also not owned by me. The book cover image also does not belong to me. The original background can be found in the link provided on my profile.

_"Thinking"  
:Com Talk:  
_**~Bond Speech~**

Vorn: 83 years  
Breem: 8.3 minutes  
Stellar cycle: ~7.5 months

* * *

A New Version of Reality

Prologue

One Added Factor

* * *

It is an undeniable fact that school plays a crucial role in a person's life. It was a house of learning filled with educators that would take young minds and stuff them with the knowledge that would shape that young person's life. Mathematics, literature, science—all important subjects to build upon later in life. Not only was it there for book learning, but the social environment also played a key role. This was the place for kids to learn how socialize with those their own age, gain the confidence they needed to function in public, and begin foraging the types of relationships that weren't family.

It was also an environment that could make or break a young child. Many thrived amongst their peers, making tons of friends and gaining the type of confidence that would later make them stand out. Others didn't do so well. Despite what parents and school faculty would do to prevent it, bullying was not an uncommon occurrence amongst children ranging from elementary school all the way up high school. It could be something that teachers wouldn't notice, like casual shoving on the playground or harsh words traded in the bathrooms, away from the ears of authority. Other times, the teachers would actually _participate_ in the bullying, shattering a young person's trust and confidence in one blow.

Bullies came in all types. You had the snotty little princess, the "misunderstood" punk, the beefed up jockey, the shrimpy guy that no one ever expected—there was really no telling who would step up to knock another down just to make him or herself feel bigger. But one characteristic of bullies tended to be universal: they started out young.

With that in mind, it shouldn't have been surprising to find one such person in an elementary school yard before class.

"There's no way you're a girl!" the little boy with chestnut hair and freckles splattered across his face said as he pointed at the girl in front of him. "Your hair's too short."

The little girl frowned, trying not to subconsciously reach up and touch the hair he was talking about. She had asked her mom to allow her to get her hair styled that way before school. Long hair just didn't suit her anymore. Granted the hairstylist had butchered her hair because the style she had wanted wasn't popular yet, so she _did_ kind of look like a boy. But everyone she knew told her she looked fine. Had they been lying to her to save her feelings?

"_No!"_ she thought with a shake of her head. She was a grown woman, and she wasn't about to let this little punk make her lose confidence in herself. She'd been through it once; it wasn't going to happen again.

So she turned her back on him, showing that his opinion of her didn't matter, and started to walk over to where the teacher was calling for her class to come in. What she didn't anticipate was a sudden shove from behind that sent her sprawling onto the ground. Tears pricked the corners of her eyes as the playground's wood chips dug into the palms of her hands and her exposed knees. As she sniffed, the boy who had shoved her laughed nastily, his little cronies following his lead.

How could she have forgotten how cruel kids could be? She looked up to see if the teacher had seen, but of course the adult's back had been turned to the whole incident as she dealt with two unruly students. The same way it had worked before.

The little brunette struggled to her feet, wincing as the scraps on her knees stung and ignoring the taunts her fellow student continued to throw at her. She had no doubt it would have continued all the way into the classroom if someone hadn't suddenly dragged her into a strangling hug. "Victoria! What happened? Did you fall? Ouch, that looks like it hurts. Here lemme help with that."

The girl, Victoria, winced as the new blond boy yanked out a particularly large sliver of wood from her palm. The bully gaped at the new boy before glaring in his third grader way. "Who are _you?"_

The blond ignored the glare and smiled broadly showing off the dimples that Victoria's mother had fallen in love with. "Hi! I'm Blake, Victoria's best friend. We live across the street from each other, but I just moved here, so I don't know anyone other than her. What's your name? Are you in our class? Wanna be friends? Maybe you can come over after school and play with me and Vicky."

The former bully just glared and stomped off to meet the teacher, shoving Blake aside roughly. He blinked as he watched the boys leave and turned back to Victoria. "Did I say something wrong? I thought I was being very friendly. I came across to strong, didn't I? I knew I should have saved the inviting over to the house for a later date."

Victoria shook her head, still a little thrown off by the fact that her was too short to even slap against her cheeks. Oh, and she was still getting used to the appearance of the little boy before her. "You just interrupted his dominating the weak."

"Human children dominate each other?" Blake asked confused as they hurried over to the teacher, who was calling once more for her class to congregate before the door to the building. "I didn't think they started doing that until puberty, or that's what Smokescreen told me."

"That's not what I meant Bluestreak," she whispered as they entered the building, dropping the fake name and using the boy's real one. In the line ahead of them, she caught a glance of a freckled face turning to glare at where they trailed at the end of the line. "It's called bullying, and a lot of kids do it because of home issues, and it makes them feel bigger than the others their age."

"That sounds like how Sunstreaker is to the Mini-bots. Except they team up and take him down when his abuse gets to be too much."

Victoria couldn't help but snicker at the thought of a bunch of mechs the size of Rumble and Frenzy, two mechs known as Cassettes that she had previously met, dog piling on top of the "Dandelion of Doom." Her laughter increased as Bluestreak answered her humor with almost ticklish prods through their bond.

What an odd thing that bond was proving to be. Victoria didn't understand it one bit and often struggled to separate the feelings she felt that weren't hers. Bluestreak helped a lot by sometimes blocking his end, but after he confessed that it disturbed him to have to cut it off for long periods of time, Victoria had insisted that he didn't do that. She'd just have to learn how to control it.

And she was highly inspired to do so. Bluestreak and Wheeljack, a brilliant engineer who pretended to be Bluestreak's "human father," had explained some of the aspects of bonding that intrigued her. Not only were feelings able to be transferred from one to the other but bonded Cybertronians could actually _talk _to one another. The mechanics of it were sketchy (as were a lot of things about bonds, or so she was beginning to learn), but the infamous spark-twins Sideswipe and Sunstreaker often did it, driving a mech known as Red Alert mad because they did it to sneak past incriminating comm. link conversations that could be used against them later, and Bluestreak had confessed to sometimes being able to do the same with his old guardian.

The closest she had come to achieving that was sending a spike of instinctive fear to all of the mechs she was currently connected to. It had taken a lot of effort from Wheeljack to keep Bluestreak from destroying her house to reach where she had been freaking out about a spider. Needless to say, Victoria currently had _no_ control over the bonds and wasn't expected to have any after only a few weeks of even becoming aware of it.

Victoria was snapped out of her thoughts as they reached the classroom. "Blake" nudged her physically to gain her attention and pointed at the clusters of desks lined into two neat rows. "Can we sit at the front? I wanna have a front row seat."

The little girl couldn't help but wonder when the novelty of school would wear off for the mech in disguise. Maybe by fifth grade? Until then it was cute to see his light blue eyes light up with such excitement. "I think we have to sit in alphabetical order."

That adorable smile instantly fell. Whether it was by first or last name, they wouldn't be sitting by each other. Wheeljack had randomly chosen the last name "Wright" for the Autobot family. Victoria's last name was the generic "Anderson." They'd be sitting across the room from each other.

Feeling the despair across their bond, Victoria patted the fake boy on the shoulder. "We're still in the same class. Just think of it as…a way to meet new people!"

Bluestreak perked up slightly. Being the social mech he was, finding new people to talk to was fun. Especially someone who could put up with his constant babble.

Kids rearranged themselves, running around the room excitedly to find their names and being happy when they found a friend from the previous year. Victoria and Bluestreak stuck together for as long as possible before having to separate, moving to opposite ends of the room. Thanks to the way their desks were facing, it was like they were sitting right across from each other, and Bluestreak waved happily from the desk he sat at.

Victoria was about to return the happy gesture when a familiar face jumped into the seat that _was_ across from her. Her bully gave her a predatory smile (at least as close to one as a third grader could get) and all she could think was a sarcastic, _"Joy."_

Maybe she could take some test that would just bump her up to high school. Or just skip all those steps and do college again. She could become famous by being the youngest person to ever get a four year degree. That would be a nice way to live your life the second time around.

Until then, she had to deal with this kid playing footsie with her underneath the desk.

**)(**

Far from Earth, in the cold outer reaches of space, a quiet ship drifted along its planned course. It was nothing like a human would imagine an alien vessel to be like, much less dramatic and boring. It wasn't meant to attract attention. It wasn't a battleship rigged with a battalion of guns or a gaudy civilian vessel decked out with the best money could buy; it was a moving lab with the only adornment being an emblem that resembled a face with sharp edges embossed on the side.

It echoed the tastes of the owner, who was traversing down one of the blank hallways within the ship at a leisure pace. He was in rush to reach his destination, and the drones hugged the walls as he passed, wisely avoiding the bulky, square mech with and the cannon mounted as his right arm. The eerie single red optic didn't divert from the path in front of him as drones weren't important enough to grasp the scientist's attention.

Eventually he reached the entrance of his private lab, entering the complicated code that few—if any—would have the ability of cracking without setting off the alarm. That is, if they were able to sneak past the highly advanced security to begin with.

The dark mech entered the lab and glanced around briefly before walking towards a group of sacs that hung from a pillar off to the side of the door, bypassing the tables full of disturbing of tools and disembodied parts that he had been experimenting with. But those were for full grown mechs. His newest project focused more on…the smaller ones.

Pulling a scalpel from his subspace, the scientist chose an embryotic sac that appeared to house a decent sized form and cut a long slit along the flimsy barrier. Fluid spilled out onto an already stained floor, sending the form slipping from the sac and into the hand of the bigger mech. The mech ignored the frantic squeaking as he non-too-gently brought the squirming protoform to the closest table, placing it there with the same amount of care he had used to rip it from the only home it had ever known.

The scientist was already feeling highly disappointed by the pathetic act the thing before him was putting on. It squawked and chirped, weakly reaching for any source of comfort. The older mech could care less as he poked and prodded, feeling more disappointed as its limbs were so flimsy that they couldn't withstand those simple actions. After the yells and cries became annoying, the Cyclops concluded his observation by popping open the premature chest plate.

The disappointment reached its peak as he gazed at the glowing orb within the chassis. It sputtered and wavered, behaving erratically as it tried to hide after being exposed for all to see. It didn't matter if the arms broke under his treatment or the optics couldn't function properly, both of which were easily fixable. The whole point of his experiment was to create a sentient soldier, and without a strong spark, this little thing was nothing more than the drones that worked on his ship.

With no emotion whatsoever, the cold-sparked scientist crushed the weak spark, not even pausing to watch the life leave the small vessel he had created as he tossed it into closest waste receptacle. It would have never survived outside of the sac it had been developing in—a failure just like the many before it had been.

"_This is turning out to be much more difficult than I had anticipated,"_ he mused as he reached for another sac that housed a mature enough form. He repeated the process several more times, finding weaker and weaker sparks as he went along.

Perhaps he was aiming too high? The point of his experiments was to create a soldier that could function on its own, unlike the drones that had to be programed to do their duties and even then guided along the way when they encountered something their programing couldn't comprehend. They were set to only to do one task at a time: clean, fight, pleasure, really anything the sick minds of the Decepticon army could come up with. That's why there were so many. But they had been one of his most successful creations, allowing the Decepticons to easily outnumber their pathetic enemy two to one.

Now he wanted something greater. The loss of their leader had put their precarious situation into perspective. As sad as it was, not only did the Decepticon drones outnumber their enemy, they outnumbered _them,_ the sentient Decepticons. They were easier to control than normal soldiers, but there came a point where it just didn't seem…logically correct. Why continue to create hundreds—thousands—of useless beings that fell so easily? It was a never ending process that just wasted their already slim resources.

So the Decepticon had set out with a new goal: find a way to make a drone sentient. And that involved giving it a spark, which was turning out to not be as easy as he had predicted it to be. But perhaps he was, to reiterate, aiming to high. He had shifted through the archived data they held on sparks, which wasn't much considering some of the data had been corrupted over time, and compiled his own archive of the strongest features of sparks.

The trine bonds had fascinated him the most. The bond between three Seekers was an amazing thing, and he would have most likely never have found it if he hadn't hacked Starscream's files vorns ago. It was what allowed them to fight so beautifully in the battlefield, silently communicating aerial maneuvers with barely a thought. It was a useful tool to use during a time of war, and the scientist had wanted that on top of all the other things he concluded made a strong, efficient spark.

But making it work was proving to be a hassle. All of his projects had ended the same as the one before: weak sparks that wouldn't even survive a breem without guttering out. A proven fact as he had timed how long it took the first few sparks fade; all of the sparks guttered out right at three-quarters of a breem. Perhaps he should find stronger sparks to split apart and place within the protoforms. The only problem was developing a method to recognize those stronger sparks. Autobot captives obviously didn't possess them. Maybe it was the way of splitting the spark that was the problem…

He was so lost in thoughts that he hardly noticed when he reached the last sac, splitting it apart like the others and allowing the tiny form to slip into his hand. However, he did notice how the protoform didn't squawk like the other. It appeared this one didn't even survive within the sac…what a disappointing waste of resources.

With the intent of disposing the body, he aimed for the closest waste receptacle when he paused. What was that vibrating emitting from the form? Curiosity peaked once more, he detoured to the closest table and reached forward with the intent of unlatching the little chassis.

Shockwave, one of the cruelest, coldest sparks in the Decepticons army, had never been so surprised in his long life at the next set of events.

As he began prying the chest plate open the tiny sparkling flinched violently. Little red optics flickered on with a squawk and stared into his only cold optic. He initially ignored the stare as he attempted to keep the now struggling sparkling still, becoming angry as it slithered out of his hold more than once. As his anger rose, it was quickly overtaken by shock at the sparkling's next action.

It growled fiercely and used its tiny mouth to bite down viciously on the closest finger.

The body was too small to cause pain, but that wasn't the mech's main concern at the moment. This was the first time one of his current experiments had even attempted to put up a fight, and by the way it was gnawing on his finger, it didn't plan to stop until the threat it perceived had been eliminated. He didn't even have to check the spark to see if it was a strong one. The fact that it hadn't already guttered out from stress was proof enough.

"You should be honored," Shockwave droned as he put an end to the harmless attacks and grabbed the tiny mechling by the short bar located on the back of his neck. The sparkling continued to growl as it was picked up even as it pathetically curled in on itself. "You are the first to move on to stage two." He noticed an oddity on the sparkling's back as he strolled across the room and chuckled. "How amusing. The one mechling to survive is actually a little _Seekerlet. _What a rare occurrence indeed._"_

The Seekerlet squeaked, not in pain but offense, as the Decepticon prodded the premature nubs of its back. Shockwave took a small amount of amusement from the noise but quickly forgot it as he tossed the Seekerlet into one of the many tanks that had been created in preparation for this next step. The premature protoform squawked again, inhaling the Energon that encompassed it.

Shockwave observed it squirming for a moment before moving on. Since the spark was strong enough to survive out of the embryotic sac, it would continue its development within the tank of enriched Energon. It was a slow progress according to the normal developmental data he had compiled, but the stunting growth wouldn't harm it. It would just keep him small until two more could be created to complete the trine. His research had told him that the bond was more likely to form within younger mechs as opposed to older ones.

The scientist documented the results, glancing occasionally at the tank to observe the sparkling curling up further and optics winking out as it adjusted to what could be its home for many stellar cycles. With new possibilities bouncing around his processor, the Decepticon exited the lab and traveled down the hallway with the intent of grabbing a fresh cube of Energon from the main dispenser before retiring. Maybe if he delayed the trine programming, allowed the spark to develop through the first stage…

"Evening Shockwave." The mono-optic mech came out of his thoughts in time to notice the cyan frame slip past him, the tip of a wing brushing against him due to the small amount of room. He didn't reply as Thundercracker slipped into the personal quarters he shared with his younger Seeker companion further down the hallway.

Shockwave didn't appreciate Starscream's attempts of spying on him through the Seeker's supposed trine mates. But he grudgingly admitted that if the two Seekers hadn't been thrust upon him to begin with, he may never have grown interested in their special type of bond.

After all, their splintered bond had been one of the inspirations for him to create a better, stronger trine that would work for him.

* * *

**AN: **Shockwave is so evil. But he'd probably be scarier if he was nice and all o_O So…there's the prologue. Extremely different from my other story's beginning. Anyway, dear readers I will not have a set time of updating for this fic. For the next few weeks, I will most likely only be writing during the brief periods of nothing in my classes. Real life sucks :( That being said, I honestly have no idea when the next chapter will be available. It could be a week, it could be a month—I just don't know. So just be aware that until my school work dies down, regular updates will be a thing of the past, which sucks because I know how annoying it is to wait forever for a fanfic to update. Loads and loads of apologies in advance!


	2. Round Two (Age 9-13)

**AN:** Yay, official chapter one :D It's about freakin' time I was able to post this. But I learned some important things during my absence. Like my calling in life is definitely not to become a childcare worker, Red vs. Blue is a fairly addictive series once you get into it, and Blades from _Rescue Bots_ is freakin' adorable~. You know, the important things in life ;)

Anyway, this chapter came out to freakishly long. I didn't even mean to make it that long either. Weird how stuff like that happens. For the sake of saving some people from going crazy from this-chapter's-too-long!-itis, I split the the chapter into two parts...and it's easier to edit in pieces ;) The other half should be posted later today.

And I was blown away how many of you reviewed the prologue! Maybe it's because it's a sequel, maybe it's because I took so long to upload the next chapter, but 28 reviews? I apologize for not being able to answer them all because life got a little hectic, but you guys are amazing :D

Now, onwards to the quick overview of the important stuff as Vicky and her Autobot cohorts traverse to the year 2007 ('cause that's when the main story takes place :3).

_"Thinking"  
:Com Talk:  
_**~Bond Speech~**

Time Units  
Joor: ~1 hour  
Orn: 13 days  
Breem: 8.3 minutes

* * *

A New Version of Reality

Chapter One (Part One)

Round Two (Ages 9-13)

**I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I've ended up where I needed to be. -Douglas Adams.**

* * *

**Age 9**

At a certain point her life, Victoria couldn't recall where the appeal of her childhood actions had come from. She never understood why she dared her brother to eat a slug once, why she tried to domesticate a squirrel one summer after her cat refused to be the tiger in her one act circus, or why she pretended to be a mime for two weeks before she accidentally broke her vow of silence when her brother had finally returned from summer camp. It just never made sense with the mentality she developed after middle school.

But as she watched the scene in front of her and tried to restrain her giggling, she was starting to remember. Everything she had done had had a funny outcome.

It was a few weeks after her redo of third grade, and summer vacation was already in full swing. All Victoria could think was _"Thank God!"_ While it hadn't been as bad as she had imagined it, it was still pretty horrible. She had never remembered the third grade being so _boring!_ Of course on her first time around she had been learning stuff, which kept her occupied, but there wasn't anything to re-learn. And she couldn't convince anyone to let her take a test that would bump up at least _one_ grade level. Her parents wanted her to have the "social experience."

_"Newsflash mom and dad, I've got that experience and more!" _Of course, she couldn't tell them, so she resigned herself to her fate.

At least Bluestreak was enjoying it. With the exception of the freckled bully, everyone in the class had adored him and wanted to be his friend, especially the little girls. Bluestreak had had fun acting like a human child and spent a little time with each new friend. Victoria would have run the chance of being jealous if it hadn't been for the fact that her mech friend always came back to her at the end of the day, happily babbling about his experiences and sharing that fun/excited feeling with her.

School was over though, and summer had rolled in with its hot and sticky days. With summer came whole new experiences, one of which she was attempting not to giggle at.

"How do you even pick up the slithery thing?" a curly haired man questioned as his fingers dug into the little container of mulch.

Wheeljack, or Jack as every other human knew him as, had jumped at the opportunity to explore more human activities. He had had just about as much in high school as Bluestreak had had in elementary school, except he had a totally different perspective as a teacher. From what she heard, Wheeljack's students absolutely _loved_ him. He had brought up grades in chemistry by thoroughly engaging them with his jovial and quirky ways. But his fellow teachers and faculty hated him. One reason could be wrote off as jealously (even the most liked teachers before him came in second by the end of the first week), but the other was much more understandable. Just because he was "human" now didn't mean he had lost his explosive tendencies. If he hadn't boosted test scores so much, there was no doubt he would have been fired after the fourth fire he had accidently started.

Those incidents aside, Wheeljack loved being a teacher, passing on his knowledge to new minds. He extended his teachings to Victoria, having had pulled her to the side one day and explaining that he wanted the chance to teach her some "tricks of the trade." It had been the previous "just in case" plan that Prowl had briefly spoken to him about just in case she had ended up on Cybertron. Victoria didn't mind as it kept her mind busy where school couldn't. She was currently learning a brief rundown of the Cybertronian anatomy before delving into deeper things...it was a very slow process at the moment.

It was funny to see him in the reversed position of student instead of teacher as her dad laughed at the engineer's clumsy actions. "Just grip it with your fingers."

"Won't that squish it and get worm guts everywhere?"

A few giggles escaped Victoria as her father sighed and reached for the white container, grabbing a worm easily and holding it out to Wheeljack. "I thought I could look past your shiny truck, but not being able to grab a little worm? How's a city folk like you survived this long out here?"

"What's wrong with having a shiny truck?" Wheeljack questioned, looking over at where his glistening alt-mode sat so prettily, the sun reflecting off of his white pristine paint job and green decals.

"It aint a real truck 'til it's covered in mud!" her dad exclaimed, pointing to where his red truck sat, the bottom of it caked with dried mud. "'Till then it's just a, a…lawn ornament!"

"At least it's pretty," Wheeljack said, unaffected by his companion's insult as he attempted to weave the brown bait on to a hook. "Now how does it stay on? Is there some kind of magnet or something?"

Her dad groaned, leaning back in one of the lawn chairs he had brought along and jolting his own fishing pole where it was propped up in front of him. _"Jack."_

_"Terrence. _I told you I've never done this before. Brand new experience; be a better teacher man!"

Victoria watched the two men banter back and forth, Wheeljack's line being baited at some point and tossed into the tiny pond they were at. This brought up new arguments as the line got caught more than once on a hanging branch. She had honestly never guessed that the two men would become friends so quickly, but they had found common ground that seemed to kick off the friendship: they both liked to build. Now, Wheeljack's form of building revolved around innovative inventions ranging from simple things that made life a little easier to weapons of mass destruction. Her dad was the construction type since his job revolved around building pools on an almost daily basis. But apparently that was good enough for them.

A gasp came from beside her, and Victoria looked to her right, feeling bad because she had almost forgotten her friend sitting so quietly beside her. The face of his holoform lit up as he grasped the child size pole in his hand. "Something tugging on it! Did I catch something? How do I bring it in? Do I just pull? It's gonna get away!"

"Reel it in!" Victoria exclaimed, his excitement rubbing off on her as she abandoned her pole to show him how to do so _again._ "We gotta get it before it eats the worm and swims away!"

"No! Don't eat my wormy!"

By now, the two adults were laughing at the children's actions. Whatever argument they had been having was promptly forgotten at the sight of the kids. Victoria and Bluestreak jerked once, falling back in the chair they shared and staring at the wiggling fish before their faces. Bluestreak reached out to touch it before pulling back with a tiny gasp as its tail whipped up to slap his finger. "It's smaller than I thought it would be."

"They don't get very big out here son," Terrence chuckled as he reached over to unhook the fish. "This here is just passin' the time fishin'. Ya want the big guys, the ones worth eatin', we'd have to go up to a buddy of mines place."

"Oh," Bluestreak said, not really disappointed as he watched his friend's dad get the fish free. "But what are we gonna do with it if you don't eat it?"

"Put it back," the two humans answered simultaneously, and Terrence gestured the fish at him. "You wanna do it?"

Bluestreak jumped at the opportunity, squealing a little as the fish slipped from his hands and back into the murky water. "Bye fishy!"

Victoria giggled at his actions. They mimicked what hers had been on her first fishing trip. She remembered being excited about her first catch, squealing as she released it, and bidding it farewell. How could anyone resist telling their first fish good-bye? Bluestreak watched the water until the ripples stilled then turned back to his pole. "Let's do it again!"

Victoria nodded while listening to her dad tease Wheeljack about his kid catching a fish before him. That started a whole new bought of banter that was ignored by the two children as they dug around in the worm container to find the right bait.

"Victoria~" She didn't look up from baiting Bluestreak's pole as she heard her brother's sing-songy tone. "Look what I got."

"If it's another frog you can just put it with Leroy over there," she said, vaguely pointing in the direction of the bucket they had pulled from their dad's truck to house the biggest frog they had ever seen. Eric was still trying to convince Terrence to let them take it home as a pet.

She noticed Bluestreak's wide eyes as he looked behind her where her brother was standing. With a sigh, she turned to see what had the mech so awestruck and jumped out of her seat with a shriek almost immediately after. "Get it away!"

"I named him Charlie!" Eric said happily, stepping closer and ignoring how his little sister freaked out more. "I bet dad will lemme keep him instead of the frog. Besides, snakes are a hundred times cooler!"

"I don't care; get it away from me!"

Bluestreak watched as the siblings ran around the group, Eric taunting his sister as she shrieked because of her phobia of snakes. It was nearly as bad as her phobia of spiders. The boy that had accompanied Eric stepped up beside Bluestreak, watching while the adults laughed. "A very…unusual pair of siblings."

"Not really," Bluestreak replied, turning to focus on his "brother." "Told you humans acted a lot like we do _Shawn."_

"Shawn" narrowed his misty blue eyes, ignoring the dark brown hair that fell into his face. "And how exactly do you and Wheeljack know this?"

"Unlike you we mingled with other humans at the beginning of our stay," the young Praxian lied. He was getting better at doing so because the only thing to give him away was the slight eye twitch. The other boy stared at him critically. "Come on Smokescreen! Drop your 'studying' for a little while and actually enjoy yourself!"

Smokescreen was prepared to reply when a girly yell caught his attention, and he turned just in time to see Eric tumble into the pond. Eric and Victoria's father got up to help his floundering son, slowing down because he was laughing too hard. With the snake now gone, Victoria merrily skipped back over to Bluestreak, glaring at Smokescreen slightly as she sat down. And Smokescreen glared right back.

He didn't get what made this little human _child_ so special to know of their presence. He just knew that one day he came back from patrol to find her in their backyard sitting on Bluestreak's knee as he talked about Prowl's unit, focusing mainly on the unit commander, Sunstreaker, and Red Alert. No explanation had been given beyond Wheeljack's simple "She's good." Smokescreen had yet to decide whether she was "good" or not.

Smokescreen watched as the human interacted with Bluestreak, seeing how they got along as if knowing each other for a lifetime. He just could not get a reading on this girl. She didn't act like others her age that he had seen while on Earth. Sometimes she just exhibited a maturity that was far beyond her years—far beyond her older brother's years! There was just something about her that made him wary. But despite how friendly he had been to her, apparently there was something about him that turned _her_ off. Perhaps he shouldn't have taught her brother that popular gambling game from Cybertron. Or at least been caught teaching him.

Either way, neither of them particularly liked each other at the moment, but Smokescreen would work on that. He was good at getting on people good sides, being a friendly audial. It was just part of his nature, and it would give him a great opportunity to get into the head of such an unusual child. But until then-

"Shawn! Charlie's swimmin' away!

"Git outta there boy! Your mama's gonna kill me if I bring you back soaked through to the bone!"

-he had this little nut to crack.

**)(**

**Age 11**

Victoria had to do a double take as she walked into the house that day after school. Not because she saw Smokescreen's holoform sitting at her table, legs kicked up, chair tilted back on two legs, and an unlit cigarette dangling out of the side of his mouth. No, that had been a normal occurrence for about two years now. What had her looking twice was the sight of her brother. "Eric, are you actually doing _homework?"_

"Don't throw him off sweetheart," her mom said as she placed a plate of Bagel Bites® between the two teenagers. "This is a once in a lifetime event. In fact, I should go get my camera to document it."

"Mom," Eric groaned, looking up from textbook and notebook as he tossed his long bangs out of his eyes. "You're throwin' me off my groove."

Smokescreen snorted as he flipped through the comic he had borrowed from the blond teen. Victoria could only stare even though she knew she needed to get back to Bluestreak since she had promised to go door to door with him selling peanuts. That was why she never joined 4-H after the mandatory year for all fifth graders at her school, but Blue wanted to get a prize for selling them, so she was helping. She was just having a hard time processing what she was seeing at the moment. "Wait…so you're actually doing _homework?"_

Eric banged his pencil on the table. _"Yes._ Why can't nobody believe that?"

"'Cause you're mind aint programmed to think that way," Smokescreen said, exaggerating a southern drawl while poking the blond in the forehead. Eric glared at the brunet, the normal testosterone rising and tempting him to give the teen that had been his closest friend for the past three years a right hook. Knowing Smokescreen, it was probably the reaction he was aiming for. Just one more insight to a human teenager's mind. Or at least Eric's head, which was _way_ more interesting than the normal teenager's mind.

But Victoria was still having a difficult time believing what she was seeing to scowl at the gambler for using her brother as a experiment again. "But…you hate homework. You always say you won't waste your time on stuff you'll never use because a cartoonist doesn't need it."

"'Cause they don't," Eric assured her. He ignored Smokescreen and began to devour the snacks his mom had created. It was a good thing the Autobot didn't require substance because Eric would have never allowed him it with the way the teen ate everything nowadays. "But I don't wanna get one zero in this class."

It was then that Victoria noticed the figures in the book, and she felt like slapping her forehead. How could she have not seen it? "Eric, what science are you taking this year?"

"Jack is so. Freakin'. _Awesome,"_ her brother said, emphasizing the last three words with pauses. Smokescreen had a look on his face that matched hers now. _Of course._ Smokescreen had taken biology because one, it was something for him to actually learn and two, to avoid being blown up by Wheeljack. It was bad enough that he had to watch his back at home. "He actually didn't _lecture _us or act like he was more superior than us. Do you know how many teachers do that? Like none. He was even sittin' in the middle of the classroom in one of those uncomfortable desks because he blew up his desk while tryin' to show us the stuff we'd be workin' with. I didn't know paper could spontaneously combust like that!"

Victoria shot a look at Smokescreen asking, _"Did you teach those big words?"_ The fake brunet's eyebrows quirked up to answer, _"Does it look like I did?"_ Meanwhile, her mom looked so proud as she kissed her son on the top of his head, ignoring his groaned "Mom!". "In all the time Jack's been our neighbor this is the first and only time I can ever say how happy I am that he's here. But if you think he's about to blow up the school _get out."_

Eric muttered a reluctant agreement and went back to drawing pictures of covalent and ionic bond between elements that were sure to get him an A+ even if the pictures didn't correctly display the bond relationships. Victoria shook her head as she grabbed a quick snack and told her mom of her plans. Trust the one time that Eric would attempt to do well in a class would be because the teacher blew things up. How typically _male_ of him.

But it got her to thinking as she chewed on her afternoon handful of cookies. Eric had never been motivated to do schoolwork, believing that he would never need it in the type of career he planned to take. That was why he tried to fill in all of his electives with art or creative writing classes—classes that would actually benefit him. Would his sudden interest in chemistry change his career plans? How would her dad react to learning that Eric was actually doing schoolwork? Her mom was already thrilled.

"How could my class suddenly change his mind about becoming an artist?" Wheeljack said when she posed the questions to him. He finished tightening a nut on the lawnmower, making it similar to the one he had created the first few days of them meeting, and scratching the back of his curly head in a very human way. After disguising themselves as humans for so long, the Autobots were finally beginning to feel comfortable in their human skins, which was more than Victoria could say. It was nice to be able to talk to them without looking crazy (she went from talking to toys to talking to cars), but Victoria just didn't like the holoforms. In a weird way, it felt like lying, and she just preferred it when they were able to retreat from civilization and find a quiet spot to chat in their real forms. "I doubt he's suddenly going to become interested in astrophysics or chemical engineering just from one high school class."

"Haven't you even stopped to wonder what our existence here may have done?" she asked insistently, handing Wheeljack a part before he could ask. She was getting good at anticipating his demands even if she still got them wrong over half the time. This time happened to be a right time, and the engineer grunted his thank you as he went back to working. "Maybe you took somebody's potential job when you showed up out of the blue, fake teaching license and bachelor's degree in chemistry in hand. What if your leaving Cybertron too early causes some catastrophe because you weren't there to create whatever that would give the Autobots an extra advantage over the Decepticons? What if-"

"Hold it right there," he sighed, putting down his wrench and pushing his goggles onto his forehead. Victoria waited eagerly and patiently for him to continue. For the past three years, Wheeljack had avoided speaking about anything that revolved around their past lives or the changes they were surely making in this dimension, always distracting her with something new to do or just giving her a blank, un-Wheeljack look before telling her to go find Bluestreak or their lesson for the day was over.

Now, he walked over to pat her on top of the head, skewing her already messed up "boy hair" and making her glare at how much of a child he was treating her. It was bad enough she had to put up with the attitude from her family doing it, but she was still a grown woman dammit! And he knew it and thought it was funny.

"I'm going to say this one time and one time only: stop thinking so hard about it." He shook his head when he noticed her open her mouth in protest. "No. What's done is done. We've already screwed up the flow in _three_ dimensions now—where we originally came from, your dimension, and now this one. We're not going anywhere. If we change things, we change things. We don't even know how events were supposed to turn out here, so _stop thinking so hard about!"_

Victoria nodded silently and watched with wide eyes as he went back to tinkering like he hadn't just shaken her to get his point across. After a few minutes of silence, the girl finally cleared her throat awkwardly. "So, uh, where's Bluestreak? We have to go sell peanuts or something."

He gestured vaguely towards the front of the house. "He's pulling up now, which is kind of amazing because he's usually back before your bus is. I think he stopped to move a turtle off the road again."

The preteen murmured an okay before escaping the room that had become his lab for human sized inventions. A short shout having her looking back to see an apologetic smile flit across the engineer's face. "Just…don't worry about that kind of stuff, okay? Enjoy being a kid again."

_"But I'm not,"_ Victoria couldn't help but think even as she nodded and left. _"As much as I like to act it, I don't have the mindset of a kid anymore. I can't help but overthink things. Like-" _She turned around and asked one more question before completely leaving. "Wheeljack…what happened to me? The me back in my original dimension?"

He gave her one of those blank looks that sent her scurrying out. It was just disturbing to have the look directed towards her.

Bluestreak was waiting for her outside, reeving his engine before popping his door open and allowing his holoform to exit. It drew less attention than just letting it fizz into existence, though the elderly couple one house over had been shocked the first time they saw a kid jump out of the driver's seat and were still on Wheeljack's back for allowing his youngest boy to go joyriding when he was barely tall enough to see over the steering wheel. "What are you feeling so conflicted about?"

Victoria shook her head and pulled an order form out from the backpack she was still wearing. "Nothin'. Let's just get this thing over with. Now as long we're back before supper time, my parents won't notice my absence. That means we can get maybe the whole street and half of the next one? Just remember what to do when they try to say no and close the door on us."

"What's that?"

"Show off those cute dimples of yours. No one can say no to the dimples."

**)(**

**Age 12**

Bluestreak didn't like it, and he let his current companion now that. Wheeljack had been assuring him that everything was fine for the past few days, and Smokescreen had kept telling him to just not worry. But he still didn't like the situation.

It had been going on for a couple of weeks and centered around the human family they had grown close to in the short time they had known them. His main concern focused on the human he had found himself bonded to, but that couldn't be helped. Whoever a mech or femme was bonded to just tended to come before everyone else. That aside, he worried about the rest of the family too.

Smokescreen had complained about Eric becoming withdrawn and keeping his nose in his sketchbook instead of amusing the gambler. That was Smokescreen talk for expressing his worry. Terrence, Victoria's dad, confided in Wheeljack a month or two ago that his wife hadn't been feeling well, which had also been around the same time Victoria began retreating from him.

At first, it was just physical: not hanging out with him as much, smiling less frequently at his poor attempts at human humor, speaking less often and even ignoring her usual meetings with Wheeljack, which had begun to tick off the engineer after the third unexplained missed lesson. Then she had begun to close off their bond. He had thought she had just wanted some privacy because of what the humans called "puberty" was just beginning to really kick into gear. She seemed highly sensitive about things nowadays; before she had blocked him out, she had yelled at Wheeljack for making some harmless comment and came back an hour later, crying and apologizing for freaking out. Human hormones were a scary thing especially in females.

But she had been blocking him for longer than he was comfortable with. Yeah, he understood the need for privacy. He had blocked her out the few times he had had the chance to talk to his former guardian, who was currently halfway across the galaxy, but those moments had never lasted longer than a joor. She had been completely blocking him for a _week_ now. There was something wrong.

To top it off, none of the Autobots had seen neither hide nor hair of the human family during that week. Terrence had only called Wheeljack once to ask if he could make sure their dog didn't starve while they were gone, but that was it. Their only clue that something was wrong was that the man had sounded less like himself, more subdued in a way, but Wheeljack hadn't been able to contact him again because his cellphone would automatically go to voicemail.

"What if something's happened to them?" Bluestreak chattered as he sat beneath the carport with Smokescreen. It had been a long, dragging week of school without Victoria, and if it wasn't for the fact that he couldn't afford missing days without potentially failing the grade or drawing unwanted attention, he wouldn't bother to go. He had actually whined to Wheeljack about it, but the engineer had told him that they had agreed to "live like the humans do" to avoid suspicion. Bluestreak had chosen to be Victoria's age which entailed having to go to school even when he didn't want to. Besides, if Wheeljack had to go to school, so did him and Smokescreen. He wasn't about to suffer alone.

"I'm sure they're fine," Smokescreen drawled, his mind on other things as he vaguely listened to his fellow Praxian. Like the poker game he was currently involved with. He didn't like to admit it but he sucked at these online gambling games when he was alone. That settled it: Eric was like a little lucky charm that won him hundreds. Where was that kid when he actually needed him?

"But they haven't been home in a _week_," Bluestreak protested, ignoring Smokescreen when the gambler cursed at a sorry hand. "That's not normal Smokey. They've never left without a word for this long, not even when they go on vacation! And Victoria hasn't talked to me for the whole time. That isn't like her to just ignore my calls like that. It was the whole reason 'Jack messed with her phone to allow her to be in direct contact with me—us—in case of emergencies. What if something's happened to her? Like a _really_ bad something." He gasped as a thought occurred to him. "They could be held hostage somewhere in the middle of the woods by a maniac who's making them saw their feet off because of a sick and twisted game!"

Smokescreen didn't immediately reply, not because he was busy but because he honestly couldn't form a reply to that. He had _told_ Wheeljack that Bluestreak shouldn't be allowed to watch those movies even if the little humans could. It wasn't until the younger mech started up his engine in a panic and attempted to back out that he said, "Hold up, hold up! Blue, I doubt that's what happened. You're worrying yourself over nothing. They've probably just have family business that they're taking care of, like maybe a…what does Eric call the creators of his creators?"

"Grandparents."

"Maybe one of them passed. That would explain why Terrence didn't sound his best. It would be his creators, wouldn't it?"

Bluestreak paused and slowly rolled back in. "Yeah, maybe you're right. But that's so sad to think. I mean, they don't get to see them often, but Eric and Vicky seem really close to their grandparents, and they've already lost one set of them. No wonder they haven't bothered to call or anything." The talkative mech quieted down for a while, allowing Smokescreen to get in a few good rounds of cards before speaking up again. "Maybe we can do something for them. Don't humans give their friends food after a death? Maybe we could make them cookies or something."

"Cookies?"

"Yeah. Where can you go wrong with cookies? They're yummy."

"…you've eaten a cookie?"

"Yeah. You should try one; they're pretty awesome. Just don't eat too much because you tend to get a little hyper and wacky."

A puzzled Smokescreen didn't get a chance to ask how that was possible, since Wheeljack had yet to add a feature to their already advanced holoforms that would allow them to eat (not saying that he wasn't _working _on it), because said brilliant and good-looking engineer was just pulling around the house. Wheeljack sometimes stayed later at school because of his position as a teacher, so it wasn't odd for him to occasionally show up three hours later than them. It _was_ puzzling that he would drive up so quickly, leaving tracks of kicked up grass in his wake as he swerved quickly around the building. He screeched to a halt in his usual spot under the little awning that had been built above their patio space and activated his holoform generator not long after that. He dusted off his usual lab coat (he changed the color of his shirt every day to avoid suspicion) before heading back out front without even looking in their direction.

"What's got you in a hurry?" Smokescreen asked, putting his game on hold for the moment.

"I just saw Victoria and her family pull up," Wheeljack said, not stopping. "They didn't look very happy, so I'm going to see what's wrong."

"Maybe you should actually give them time to settle back down," Smokescreen replied, though he noted that Bluestreak hadn't wasted anytime activating his own human guise and bolting across the yard to join Wheeljack. "They probably need to absorb whatever happened."

"Normally, I'd agree with you, but I've seen that look on their faces before." The crazy scientist stopped long enough to look back at where Smokescreen still sat under the port and allowed Bluestreak to run ahead of him. "You should come talk to Eric. I think…I think he might need a close friend right now."

Smokescreen didn't protest as he often did when the other two referred to him as "Eric's closest/best friend." The mech didn't agree with the title as he often treated the boy like a particularly stubborn case to crack, and it made him feel oddly upset because he was technically lying to the kid about who he really was. But Wheeljack's lack of teasing had caught his attention, and his own teen holoform was slouching along behind them before long.

He didn't have to go far because the human teen was sitting on the front stoop of the house, his pencil working furiously across a sheet of thick sketch paper while the family's aged dog lie beside him almost lifelessly.

"Hey Eric," Bluestreak said softly as he paused on the bottom step while Wheeljack continued into the house and Smokescreen took a stereotypical teenage approach and collapsed in the spot beside the dog. "Are…you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah," Eric grunted, not looking up as he ran a deep and dark crooked line across the paper. He cursed, aggressively ripped the paper from the spiral bound book, and balled it up before throwing it into the front yard. He scowled at Bluestreak after the action. _"What?"_

Bluestreak shook his head and hurried into the house, looking back long enough to see Smokescreen drop the teenage persona he had adapted after observing other teenagers and actually look concerned for the blond. When he entered the house, he glanced into the front room to see Wheeljack sitting beside a desolate Terrence. It wasn't the type of sight he wanted to see, and his worry spiked as he climbed the stairs.

Victoria was still blocking him out, and after seeing her brother and father, he wasn't sure he wanted to see the state she was in. Wheeljack had commented on seeing those types of looks before—well so had Bluestreak. It was a look that was fairly common in war.

"Victoria," Bluestreak called out when he reached her room. He jiggled the doorknob, found it locked, and knocked on the door. "Victoria, open up!" he didn't receive any answer, making him more upset as he fought not to kick the door in. It would have been hard to explain how a preteen had found the strength to do that. The almost blank end of the bond pushed him to the edge and he called out instinctively. **~Victoria!~**

A surprised jolt came from the block. Bluestreak had always respected the closed end of a bond, whether it had been concerning his creators, guardian, or Victoria. When privacy was wanted, privacy was given especially since Victoria still couldn't grasp the concept of how to speak through the bonds. But there was a point when that concept overstepped vague boundaries and knowing that the person on the other end of that bond was most likely hurting, a mech had to do what he had to do in order to reach them.

Thankfully he wasn't yelled at for being so rude, and the lock on the door clicked open for him to enter.

After entering the room and silently closing the door behind him, he just stared at the girl who had changed so much in what he considered such a short amount of time. Victoria didn't bother with manners as she sniffed noisily and wiped excess snot on the sleeve of her shirt. She looked as if she hadn't slept for days: dark circles beneath her drastically reddened eyes, her skin was paler than usual, clothes disheveled and hair looking particularly ratty at the moment. Most would have gawked at the appearance, but Bluestreak was too focused within, at the _still_ closed bond, to really notice or actually care. "What's wrong? What happened? Why have you been blocking me out? I was worried sick!"

Victoria sniffed again. "Sorry…"

"I didn't know what was going on!" Bluestreak went on, ignoring her apology as what he had been holding in for so long finally spewed out. "All I knew was that something was wrong, and you were blocking me out and ignoring me in every way, and you were ignoring Wheeljack, and I was so worried but didn't know what to do because you wouldn't _let me in!_ Did I do something wrong? Are you uncomfortable coming to me with problems or worries? Are you—please don't cry! I didn't mean to upset you more! I take it all back; just don't cry!"

Bluestreak quickly closed the space between them and dragged the sniffling girl into his arms. He was surprised that she didn't immediately back away, since Victoria rarely liked these sudden gestures of affection unless she was the instigator. But she simply leaned in and began to cry on his shoulder, another indicator that something was extremely wrong. "Victoria what's going? Your brother's having mood swings, your dad didn't look that good, _you're_ crying and…Vicky, where's your mom. I didn't see her at all when-"

The Praxian inwardly freaked out when the girl's crying turned into gut wrenching sobs and she jerked away to sit on the edge of her bed. Oh man, he just royally screwed everything up! He hadn't meant to make her cry more. What the frag was he supposed to do? He didn't have this type of experience with femmes!

Turned out the only thing he _could_ do was sit beside her and wait the sobs out. He feared touching her or attempting to approach her through the bond would scare her away or worse. He hated watching her hurt like this and knowing he couldn't help because she didn't trust him. That was plain as day with the way she shut him out so early and without question.

Eventually Victoria calmed down enough to speak, but it took a while for Bluestreak to understand what was being said. "Didn't want to worry you."

_"Well it didn't work," _Bluestreak wanted to snap, but knew it would hurt her more. Even at his angriest he wouldn't want to do that. He chose another approach. "What's going on?"

Victoria choked on another sob and suddenly tackled the boy beside her. Bluestreak grunted at the unexpected attack and fell over to let the girl cry on his chest. "I didn't…I didn't…it's not fair!"

Bluestreak patted the back of her head with uncertainty. As much as he wanted to help her, this was weird. Vicky didn't cry about stuff. Ever. "I still don't get what's going on."

The girl sniffed, and he didn't mind the fact that his shirt was being stained by tears and snot. It was as real as the current body he occupied anyway. After a moment, she finally sat up, rubbing her face as if to erase the evidence of her breakdown. "It wasn't supposed to happen so early. I still had another year at least."

Bluestreak sat up and waited for her to continue. He had repeated his questions enough times and doubted he needed to repeat it anymore. Victoria looked straight up into his eyes the same color as his real optics. "My mother's not coming back home."

The mech stared at her for a moment, puzzled by her strange wording, before the meaning suddenly dawned on him. He didn't say anything, knowing that words wouldn't even matter right now, and pulled her back into a comforting hold. Victoria accepted the comfort and hugged him back this time. "I was supposed to have more time. She wasn't supposed to leave me this early. There's' so much I wanted to tell her. I wanted more time!"

Bluestreak let her babble some more until her ramblings didn't make any sense, and still he let her rant. Stopping her would be useless, and at least she trusted him enough to let it out in front of him. Her unhealthy habits of keeping everything to her herself were slowly fading. There was just one thing that still upset him…

"Why did you shut me out?" Bluestreak asked quietly as her talking drifted to an end. "I could've been there for you; I could've helped somehow."

"I didn't want you to hurt too," she answered quietly. "I don't know how to keep my feelings to myself yet unless I completely shut you all out."

Bluestreak frowned at the confession. He was once again reminded that Victoria wasn't like them. She didn't understand one of the main functions of bonds. "Victoria that was just stupid."

Victoria looked up at him with wide, surprised grey eyes. Bluestreak seemed to realize how his statement had come out and backtracked. "I mean, closing the bond was just…well, there's really no other way to say it. It was really dumb. What's the point of a bond if you shut out the other end when bad stuff happens? Is it only convenient when everything's fine and dandy? Bonds are strengthened by trust and by blocking others out, you're basically saying 'Hey, I don't really need you unless we're having fun. When big stuff happens, I just want you to mind your own business.' That's not how any type of relationship works, bond or not. Human or Cybertronian. You handle the good and the bad _together._ It kind of defeats the purpose of being bonded when you're only acknowledging half a person. Unless it was a force bond…we didn't force you did we? I mean, when it happened we really didn't have much control, and we were just worried when we felt you drifting away, and you were really scared, and I personally couldn't help but fully complete the bond when I had the chance, but you didn't realize what was going on so…oh Primus. I really did force the bond on you, didn't I? I'm so sorry! Maybe, maybe Ratchet can figure out a way to fix this. I don't personally think it needs to be fixed, but if you—"

Bluestreak blinked as a sudden rush of emotions filled him. Wow, no wonder she had blocked him out. Grief, worry, pain, anger—all of it formed an overwhelming cocktail of negative emotions. How could she have possibly kept this all locked inside without going crazy?

"Practice," she answered his unasked query, and some of the emotions died down as he sent comforting waves her way. No doubt one of the Twins were doing the same because the negative emotions were diminishing faster now. "I didn't think you deserved to be overwhelmed like that."

"Don't ever think that way again. Emotional support is what bonds are best for. After all, that _is _the only part of it you seem to understand how to use." He listened to her half-hearted chuckle and squeezed her closer. "Can you promise never to block me out like that again? Please?" It made him feel slightly pushy and whiney, but he couldn't deny the relief he felt when she nodded and snuggled down into the pillows. "The last time I was blocked out like that, I never saw my creators again. I don't wanna think that I've lost you too, not yet."

Victoria nodded and buried her face into his shoulder. Her mother's death had come a year earlier than it should have, and the loss was as devastating as it was the first time, if not worse because she actually knew that after it started, she'd never see her mom again. But having Bluestreak physically there and the added support of Sideswipe (and grudgingly Sunstreaker) emotionally was an added luxury that she didn't have the first go around, and she didn't hesitate to admit that it was a great help.

Then and there, she made a promise to herself that she wouldn't shut them out unless she absolutely had to. What she thought was a good thing, shutting them out before things got bad, turned out to probably be worst thing she could have done. In the effort to save Bluestreak from feeling her distress, she had reminded him of one of the worst times he had gone through; she didn't even want to get into the scolding (more like a rant) she was receiving from Sunstreaker for overwhelming him in one instant when he was in the middle of a gunfight with a Decepticon (having Red Alert save him apparently damaged his ego). Sideswipe was the only one who didn't seem fully upset. Bonds were just so complicated, and she was still learning. Maybe not at the pace that the other three would have liked but it was a slow on-going process.

The last few days' events finally caught up to her, and a wave of drowsiness suddenly washed through her. Subconsciously closing her eyes in response to it, Victoria briefly noted that the last bond, the bond that had kept her firmly shut out from the very beginning, quivered slightly before reinforcing its defenses. But she was too far gone to notice it much and drifted off to sleep with the comfort of Bluestreak beside her.

**)(**

**Age 13**

Victoria couldn't help but scowl at her brother's closed bedroom door as she passed. He thought he was being so secretive with his packing, but she saw it! And she saw how he let "Shawn" in on his big secret too. Shawn—the fake human whom he had only known for five short years, yet that fake boy still ranked higher than she did.

Bluestreak had pointed it out before and she wholeheartedly agreed as there was no use in denying it. Victoria was jealous. No matter what changes she had made, how much closer to him she had become, Eric still refused to confide in her of his plan to leave as soon as that high school diploma was in his hand. She wouldn't resent him for as long as she did the first time since that had gotten her nowhere, but she would hate him for a while even if she already knew. The point _wasn't_ knowing what was going to happen, it was being trusted not to tattle to their dad and the pinprick of sadness that he would still bolt as soon as possible.

With a heavy sigh, she hopped down the stairs and detoured to the living room, scrunching her nose when she caught the familiar scent of the polish her dad was using to shine his "good" boots. The animosity between father and son hadn't been as severe as she thought it would be, but there was no doubt that Terrence still disapproved of Eric's choice of career. Some emotions had fizzled out over the long year, and they were on slightly better terms that had them speaking one or two sentences to each other without yelling. But her father still scowled when Eric refused to apply to anything other than art schools.

"Daddy, I'm going over to Blake's house," Victoria informed him before backing out of the room as quickly as she had come. She didn't necessarily need permission to visit, but it was a common courtesy to let her dad know where she was going. Plus she didn't want a repeat of him freaking out like the time when he couldn't find her a month after her mother's passing, even though it was logical to assume she had been over at the Autobot's house like every other day.

"Careful crossin' the street," he ordered out of habit before adding as an afterthought, "And don't get in a room alone with that boy."

"When did Blake become 'that boy?'" she asked in disbelief at the last order.

"When him and my baby girl crossed the line of awkward preteen into young hormonal teenagers."

"Eww!" she yelled appropriately as she made her getaway. The disgust wasn't fake as she couldn't imagine being with Bluestreak in, well, _that _way. It would be like…wanting to be with Eric. It was just gross to think about, and it didn't even matter that she was pretty sure doing stuff like that wasn't even anatomically possible between them. And if Wheeljack ever got the idea to make it _possible,_ he'd find himself in a ditch with the front end of his alt-mode crushed in. She had her ways to make it possible.

Speaking of the loony engineer, Victoria found him elbow deep in Bluestreak's innards like a mechanic. It made her pause in surprise until she saw him waving a human-sized handheld scanner. The nifty little gadget wasn't pulled out often because it was still in the developmental stage and prone to falling apart. But at least it didn't blow up like everything else seemed to have a habit of doing. "I thought Blue just had a maintenance check."

"He did, but I'm just making sure that some of the human parts are integrating well," Wheeljack explained, watching the Cybertronian symbols fly across the screen. "Ratchet's gonna kill me if he ever discovers I replaced parts without knowing how they would work."

"It was either that or let him be in pain until others land, and even then they might not have the proper parts. At least you'll have a heard start at converting resources," Victoria said, moving to stand beside him. To an average human, the inside of the vehicle would look like any other, which was the point. When they scanned an alt-mode it wasn't just the outside appearance that carried over. Most of it was just for show and didn't have an actual function, but that was mostly just the surface junk. Underneath that were the important parts, like the spark chamber and a series of major fluid lines. Very important stuff.

"He's picked up bad habits from the Twins," Wheeljack commented as he leaned over to scan the Praxian once more. "Ratchet could've easily repaired him before we split from the group if he hadn't skipped his final check-up."

"It would've kept you guys from leaving as early," Victoria defended, having already discussed this with Bluestreak when he first started feeling pain. "I don't agree with his choice but he was just eager to leave."

"Whatever, that doesn't distract from the fact that Ratchet will most likely kill me." The engineer fiddled with something before looking up at her standing beside him. "What's up with you?"

"Why does something have to be 'up' to come and visit?"

"You usually wait until after lunch to come over on Saturdays. It's the only reason Bluestreak slowed down long enough to let me give him a thorough check-up."

Victoria scowled as she realized that she _had_ come over to early. If she wasn't basking in the chance to once again sleep in on the weekends, then she was sitting beside Eric eating a huge bowl Cocoa Puffs® and watching cartoons. With a sigh, she plopped down onto the ground and leaned against the front bumper of Bluestreak. "Eric'll probably be leaving soon after he graduates."

"You knew that was going to happen. You've been telling Bluestreak for weeks now. I don't see why you'd be so upset."

She glared up at him. "Because he can't even slow down long enough to talk to me nowadays, but he had has _loads_ of time for _Smokescreen."_

Wheeljack paused to look down at her before returning to his task. "I didn't think you were so possessive."

Victoria opened her mouth to retaliate before slowly closing it again and looking away. It was hard for her to admit that she was changing. At first, she had acted like she normally did—responsible and somewhat unattached to most things going on around her. Truthfully the changes had started the moment she met the Autobots and Decepticons. Now it was to the point where she was acting like a teenager, which made sense since her body was currently going through that stage again. But she had to keep reminding herself that she _wasn't _thirteen.

"That's not the point," she finally deflected, and Wheeljack shrugged. "The point is that he's leaving…again."

"In his defense, it's only the first time." Victoria glared at his back once more as he continued. "You're bent on changing things. Have you ever considered just letting them happen? No matter how hard you wish you could, you _can't_ change everything to how you want it to be. Some things just can't be changed to fit the perfect little world you want. I know—I've tried."

Victoria dropped her glare and just stared. More than once she had been tempted to ask him directly what had happened to make him so serious at times. She had tried a few times in the beginning, but she hadn't like the way he closed up or ignored her for a period of time, so she had stopped.

Now she just sighed in defeat. "Fine."

"Focus on yourself a little more," the engineer added, pointing the device he held in her direction. "Bluestreak's told me how you didn't have a lot of 'reckless teenage times' the first go around. Maybe you can do things now that you have a little partner-in-crime who is _way_ too eager to try them out."

"Like what?" Victoria asked with a grin.

"Well, there was simple stuff like school sports and going to school dances. Then there was partying, getting hammered, something about experimenting with different stuff, and—what are you laughing about?"

Victoria gasped for breath between her giggles and stood up. "Tell him he better research some of that stuff before he becomes committed to doing it because I think he just skimmed the surface of the stereotypical teen. Most teenagers are stupid and not everything they do is smart."

"Where are you going?" Wheeljack asked while watching her leave.

"I'm…going to enjoy the time I have left with my brother before he leaves," the teen answered. "Talking to him long distance just won't be the same."

The avatar blinked in surprise before nodding, and Victoria hurried back to her house to barge into her brother's room and sprawl on his bed (after "accidently" shoving Smokescreen off) until he got fed up and paid attention to her. Wheeljack made a valid point—she couldn't change everything to make her happy. She wanted to, and she tried on several occasions, but she just made herself more miserable when it didn't work.

So she'd go another route. She would enjoy herself this go around instead of being blinded by hate and trying to hurry into becoming an adult. She'd try out stuff with Bluestreak (if it wasn't too stupid; she still had enough sense not to screw herself over with alcohol and drugs), figure out what she was interested in during these years instead of doing another bout of college to become an _accountant._ Just try to be happy in general.

As much as she didn't like it, changing herself instead of others would probably do her a lot of good.

* * *

(Other half later today if all goes well :D)


	3. Round Two (Age 16-18)

_"Thinking"  
:Com Talk:  
_**~Bond Speech~**

Time Units  
Joor: ~1 hour  
Orn: 13 days  
Breem: 8.3 minutes

* * *

A New Version of Reality

Chapter One (Part Two)

Round Two (Age 16-18)

**I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I've ended up where I needed to be. -Douglas Adams.**

* * *

**Age 16**

Victoria felt like hiding under the desk in hopes that a hole would suddenly open beneath her and gobble her up, just to complete her already foul mood. Since that was impossible, she settled on glaring at the huge periodic table that stretched across the wall on the other side of the room.

Freaking counselor. How dare she take it upon herself to stick Victoria in Chemistry instead Biology? _"I thought you would benefit more form this class according to your interests." _Then why didn't she stick the teen some engineering class? Because the interests Victoria had put down was "tinkering with old cars," which was as close to the truth as she could possibly come. It was actually stripping them down for parts and watching Wheeljack turn those into something appropriate for Cybertronian use while slowly learning what each new part was. Cybertronian anatomy was turning out to be way more difficult than she had anticipated. They just had so many parts to learn that it made it impossible to learn in a short period of time. On the plus side, doctor and mechanic didn't appeal much to her as a life-long career anymore.

And okay, she might have put something chemistry related down because Wheeljack had also been teaching her that and it fascinated her to a certain level, but that was beside the point. She had _specifically_ signed up for Biology at the end of last year. She didn't need to relearn everything that Wheeljack had already taught her. He had developed a habit of bringing work home, and Victoria, Bluestreak, and (before he decided to leave with Eric) Smokescreen knew just about everything that human chemistry had to offer. Understanding it was a completely different matter, but the rebellious teen she had allowed to thrived in her the last few years didn't care about that and _didn't _see this as an opportunity to finally understand it.

Victoria couldn't even decide whether she was grateful for the fact that Bluestreak had managed to accomplish a last minute class change from Biology to Chemistry or glare at him too. She loved Bluestreak dearly, but she couldn't stand the buzzards he had accumulated over the years of middle school and their first two years of high school. And by buzzards she meant girls—girls that glared and stuck their noses up at her because the "Hottie" of their grade paid more attention to her than the boobs constantly thrust in his face. She liked to imagine how devastated they would be if they ever found out that even if he did fall for them, they would never get laid. Hormonal bitches…

Victoria banished the hateful thought with a shake of her head. Well there was no denying that she was a teenage female. She had bypassed this stage the first time by just ignoring girls like this. It was hard to figure out how exactly she had done that…

But right now, she saw an opening and took it by grabbing the bar that connected the desk to the chair and forcibly dragged a surprised Bluestreak over until their desks clanked together. The girls glared before dispersing in an annoyed huff when Victoria's glare overpowered theirs. _"That's right. A teenage's glare's got nothing on a full-grown woman's perfected one. Come back in a couple of years."_

"What'dja do that for?" Bluestreak asked, though the tone of his voice suggested that he didn't mind. He didn't openly dislike any human, but his discomfort of being he center of the buzzards' attention was apparent to Victoria. "You're not still mad about the class change are you?"

"Yes," she answered point blank and knew that he knew that. There hadn't been any attempt to hide that anger and annoyance. "But that's not what I wanted to talk about. I need you to do me a favor."

"What?" he asked, lowering his voice to match her sudden whispering and leaning closer to hear her better.

"Make your holoform fat."

Bluestreak leaned back in slight surprise and frowned. "But…why? I mean, don't humans prefer more attractive forms?"

"Exactly," Victoria answered and gestured vaguely in the direction that the group of girls had gone. "Your hotness is attracting them because they wanna get laid!"

Bluestreak's eyes blanked for a moment before he blinked again. "But I don't wanna do _that._ I mean, I wanted to try a genuine teenage human experience, but I'm not attracted to them in any way. Not that I'm saying they're not pretty; they're actually very pretty in their own ways. But…uh…" He trailed off when he realized what he was babbling about and noticed how Victoria just stared at him. "I don't like blondes."

Victoria snickered at his mortified expression. "Make your holoform less attractive. They'll leave you alone." She poked at his perfectly tanned cheek. "Give yourself zits or something. Just make it less movie star perfect."

Bluestreak thought intently for a moment before nodding. "I'll come to school with a case of zits tomorrow."

They stared at each other before Victoria suddenly burst into laughter, attracting the attention of the majority of the room. "You make it sound like some disease!"

"It's not?"

Victoria was gasping for breath when the teacher finally appeared in a flourish of "just blasted" hair and the blackened clothes and face to support it. "Sorry I'm late young new minds! Uh…if any of your other teachers mentions something about the coffeemaker in the teacher's lounge…be sure to emphasize that I have not drank coffee since coming here." He paused behind his desk as he finally noticed the laughter bouncing around the room. "Oh good! Normally everyone on the first day is dead to the world and boring. This is a nice change!"

Victoria's laughter twiddled down to a snicker or two until she was able to give her full attention to Wheeljack. He did a quick double take, holding his marker midway through writing his name on the whiteboard. "Victoria? Since when have you let loose in public and actually laughed?" He brushed her glare off and gestured the marker at the small space between her and Bluestreak. "Your dad told me not to let you jump Blake in the middle of school, so you better separate before I let my mind misinterpret the situation and 'accidently' let it slip later to your father."

_"Jack,"_ the teen hissed as her friend slid his desk away in slight embarrassment and the rest of the class snickered.

"That's Mr. Wright in class," he corrected, grinning as he turned back to the board. "Or for those who wish to kiss up, Mr. Greatest-teacher-in-the-whole-wide-world. Personal relationships aside, you are now my go to 'pick-on student.' So no smooching in the back of my classroom you two, or I'll call you out in the middle of class and embarrassingly separate you."

_This_ was why she never wanted Wheeljack's class. He thought it was just _hilarious_ to find ways to embarrass her for the past two years when they passed each other in the hallways, calling her out multiple times to remind her of something that no teenager wanted shouted in public. Like a "friendly" reminder that she needed to pick up certain items after school. She refused to speak to him for the rest of the week after that incident, but that didn't stop him from trying to talk to her between classes or sitting with her and Bluestreak at lunch.

But she had learned that if she didn't respond to the teasing, he'd eventually grow bored and move on to something else. Unfortunately, she had been around him for years now and still hadn't figured out a way to _keep_ him bored. But she had learned that distractions provided temporary solace.

"Why is the marker ink eating through the board?"

Wheeljack turned to see what she was talking about, and the other students gasped at the sight of the lettering sinking inwards. The engineer/teacher looked down at the marker he held and slowly placed it back in his bag. "Whoops, I picked up the wrong set of markers this morning…oh well! Class this is a perfect example as to why rules while handling acids and other mixtures in the classroom should be followed in the strictest of ways. You never know when you'll pick up the wrong thing and burn words into the wall." He looked closely at the new crevasses. "No one says anything to Principal Jefferson. He'll take away my board and give me another with less personality."

Some students picked up on the joke and laughed while others still gaped at the phenomenon that their teacher brushed off so easily. Victoria glanced over at Bluestreak, but he only shrugged. This was _Wheeljack;_ having him burn a hole through the wall was much more preferable than blowing up the classroom.

All in all, chemistry with Wheeljack wasn't nearly as bad as she thought it would be nor was it as crazy as her brother had exaggerated. The engineer had only made one pen spontaneously combust. But he turned out to be the most entertaining teacher she had. Her English teacher talked in monotone and put her to sleep; the Trigonometry teacher wouldn't stop complaining about her "good for nothing" ex-husband and how every guy in the classroom somehow reminded her of the "bastard;" and her obligatory study hall was boring as hell without Bluestreak to talk to.

It was the class switch between study hall and her next class that Victoria was approached. At first she could only stare in astonishment before narrowing her eyes in suspicion when she realized it was one of the girls from this morning. At least it was one of the sweeter "buzzards" who was actually able to take a hint every once and a while and didn't relentlessly pursue Bluestreak. "Uh, did you need something?"

The slight blonde twiddled her thumbs nervously before nodding. "Um, yeah. I wanted to ask if you and Blake are, you know, _together?" _Victoria just stared at her. "Like _dating?"_

The brunette stared at the girl in front of her with astonishment. _"No._ That's just…I can't even think about him that without gagging or something. He's like a brother to me."

The blonde nodded in embarrassment, and Victoria watched her cheeks briefly flare up. "I'm sorry. I just had to ask. I mean, you guys are like _really_ close—I've seen you holding hands every once and a while—and I just thought after seeing what you did in chemistry…"

She trailed off as Victoria vigorously shook her head. "We're nothing like that. The hand holding's a childhood habit, and Blake just…doesn't like to be crowded and it's hard to talk to him through a crowd of girls."

"Is that why he's never shown any interest? We're making him uncomfortable?"

"Uh," Victoria stuttered. "Not exactly…"

"Then why doesn't he, you know, seem interested? If you two aren't together?"

How do you get around telling a girl that the guy she's pining after isn't interested because he's an alien but don't give his secret away in the process? "You see…he's not really interested in girls at the moment…"

She knew something she had said had been interpreted wrong when the blonde's eyes widened and her mouth dropped open in astonishment. "Oh my God! I never realized—but by the way he acts it is _so_ obvious. Darn, it's always the cute ones that end up gay."

Now it was Victoria's turn to gap as the girl caught sight of one of her friends and rushed over to relay the news. The first warning bell buzzed, but Victoria still stood stock-still in the hallway as students rushed past her. She was finally brought out her shock as someone gripped her forearm and dragged her in the direction of her class.

"What are you doing standing in the middle of the hallway? We're gonna be late for class! I know it wasn't really a class you wanted but it was the only one we could ensure of actually having together other than Biology, which is now technically Chemistry. But I'm sure it it won't be so bad. We'll be able to help each other when we get the robo-babies later in the semester. What's wrong?"

Victoria blinked as they fell into the only available seats just as the bell buzzed again. The class of predominately female students looked over at Bluestreak, the _only_ male student, and giggled to each other. "Blue…I might have inadvertently solved your girl problem."

"Does that mean I can stay zit free? Because it's gross now that I've had more time to think about it."

"You might still have to, just not for girls," Victoria said, dropping her voice as the teacher called for their attention.

"How come?"

Victoria leaned over to quietly explain what had happened. When her explanation was complete, Bluestreak just sat in his seat staring blankly at the teacher. The teacher seemed to sense the stare and turned to him. "Is there something wrong?"

"Yes," he said as he stood up, slinging his bag over his shoulder. "I have to go talk to the counselor."

"Oh," the woman blinked as her only male student headed to the door without any kind of permission. "Is there a reason?"

"I'm switching to team sports because that's what guys like me do. You know, play sports. Not take a class about babies. And it has nothing to do with the fact that my best friend just inadvertently started the rumor that I was gay or anything. I just wanna go and sweat because…yeah, I'm just going to talk to the counselor real quick."

The teacher blinked as Bluestreak dashed out the door before turning to the rest of the class. "Well, I can't honestly say that that hasn't happened before. It's a real shame that I can't seem to keep the boys for more than ten minutes."

There were giggles from the girls, but Victoria ignored them as she sent waves of apologetic emotions through the bond. Bluestreak brushed them off since he wasn't really mad at her. Sexual orientation amongst giant sentient robots wasn't a big deal, especially when the race wasn't as…sexually active as humans appeared to be. Mechs out populated femmes by an almost two to one ratio so it wasn't uncommon to occasionally find two mechs together. Bluestreak just tended to prefer femmes despite their rarity, so he wouldn't consider himself "gay." And like all males falsely accused, he suddenly felt the urge to do "manly things."

Oh Dear Lord. If Wheeljack ever caught wind of this, they'd never live it down. Was there any way this could day could get any worse?

"I hope you don't make it a habit of being ten minutes late."

"Course not teach'! Just got held up in the office."

Victoria froze as the seat previously occupied by Bluestreak scrapped against the linoleum, and the new occupant happily flung himself across it, using the toe of his dirty sneaker to poke her in the leg. "I was worried we wouldn't have a class together this year! It'd be _terrible _to break such a long going record."

The teenager felt a muscle above her eye twitch as she glared at the familiar freckled face that had found a way to follow her through school all these years. Obviously the answer to her previous question was yes, yes it could get much worse. This was why you never questioned the universe; it had a terrible sense of humor.

**)(**

**Age 17**

"Dad put those back."

"But I _need _these."

Victoria gave Terrence "The Stare" until he grumbled and reluctantly placed the package of cookies back on the shelf. She nodded and pushed the shopping cart down the aisle while her dad followed at a slower pace. "Why'd I have to come? It aint like I don't know how to buy _food."_

"Because your version of a healthy meal is meat and beer."

"Been keepin' me alive for the past five years too."

Victoria sighed and drew the buggy to a halt in front of a display of cereal. "Dad it is not a good sign when your thirteen year old insists on doing the grocery shopping after your first trip."

"Eric didn't have a problem," Terrence protested, scratching his head as he watched his daughter meticulously compare two brands of similar cereals. He groaned and leaned his elbows against the bar of the cart.

"Eric was a teenage boy and would've eaten his own foot if you had fried it and served it up with a side fries." She tossed him a box to put in the buggy and walked ahead to the cold stuff at the back of the store, leaving her dad to man the cart. "I just want to make sure that you can at least buy _some_ healthy food when you're on your own instead of just adding to your ever growing beer belly."

"Keeps me warm durin' the cold season," he said with a fond pat to his protruding stomach.

"Don't do that in public."

"You're just _jealous."_

Victoria rolled her eyes but smiled at the same time. Her dad's humor had been sparse for the last few years since her mother's death. There just hadn't been room for joking when so many negative emotions swamped him. First there was the anger and annoyance towards Eric. When Eric had left, the two previously mentioned feelings had finally fizzled out and depression had set in. Once the anger was no longer there to distract him, he was forced to accept the loss of his wife and the rift his anger and hurt had inadvertently put between him and his son.

Wheeljack had become a very important person during that period, more so than before. Even though he knew Victoria could manage on her own, he had made it it a point to often help out taking care of what was left of the small family of four. From taking her shopping when Bluestreak was busy, to trying to make their lives easier by developing new gadgets that would somehow make their lives a little easier, from vacuuming on its own or mowing the lawn with a remote controller while one of them sits in a lawn chair. When those screwed up (because they always did in the end) it had brought a smile to her dad's face. Terrence now fully considered the two Autobots, Wheeljack and Bluestreak, as extended family.

Now there was only one year left before Victoria graduated. As of right now, she didn't have as clear of a plan of what she wanted to do after school, but she wanted to make sure that her dad could properly function on his own if she chose to leave soon afterwards. That meant she had to teach him that the world had more to offer than just "meat and beer."

"Hurry up!" Victoria called over her shoulder when she realized her dad was taking his sweet time to meander down the aisle and avoid choosing cheese. "We're not even halfway through yet. If you keep at that pace we'll—"

She didn't want to turn around when she heard the loud crash behind her. Praying that the incident hadn't involved her dad, she slowly turned and groaned. Of course it had involved him. Since when did the universe give her a break? Really?

Victoria stepped forward to pull her father out of the situation before he accidently made a fool out of himself but stopped. Instead of responding angrily, the woman he had crashed into was laughing good naturedly and waving off his apologies by taking half the blame for the run in. She was even joking about having to get new glasses since her current pair was obviously not working.

The teenager observed quietly from the sidelines as the two adults began to chat, pushing their buggies aside to keep out of the way of others who were shopping. Her dad wasn't normally a chatty individual around strangers, which was where she got her own habit of silence from. To see him so animatedly have a conversation especially after the embarrassment of their introduction was a little strange.

"How rude of me," Terrence finally said as their conversation dwindled. "I never introduced myself! Name's Terrence."

The redhead smiled as Victoria's dad politely stuck out his hand, which was accepted with a hardy shake that belied her small stature. "Nice to meet you Terrence. My name's Ariel. I just moved here from New York a month ago."

"No wonder you sound so funny!"

"You're one to talk!"

Victoria's eyes widened as the two laughed loudly and went off on another topic now that pleasantries were done. _This_ was her future stepmother? Damn, how the hell was her father going to land a good looking woman like that? It must have been the personality that she was so interested in because the beer belly was a pretty big turn off.

She watched them before feeling as if she was intruding on their conversation. Plus it was getting awkward watching her dad behave like a teenager. No child should have to watch their parent flirt with a stranger; it just felt weird. She would reap the consequences of letting her dad finish the shopping on his own if it meant getting out of a situation that was becoming increasingly uncomfortable by the moment.

As she walked out of the grocery store, Victoria pulled out her simple cellphone and dialed the number she had memorized the moment Wheeljack had created it. It looked like any other phone number except it wasn't. Wheeljack had explained how it worked but he lost both Victoria and Bluestreak about halfway through the explanation. In dumb terms it was a code that basically high jacked a satellite to link her phone directly to either of their comm. links or Smokescreen's in the event that she couldn't reach them.

Luckily it was Bluestreak who was the first to pick up. "Hey Vicky! I thought you were out teaching your dad how to buy food. Not that I'm complaining. Patrolling is _so_ boring around here. There are just stretches of road that go on and on and on and on and on without anything in sight but trees, trees, trees, trees, and more trees until you reach the next town. That's why I like to take the routes through the towns and stuff. I always find something new to learn about. Humans are pretty creative when they really try. I just passed through a town that was holding this big fair. We should go before it ends next week! It can be like a last minute summer activity before school starts. Maybe they'll have candy apples and funnel cakes…"

Victoria waited patiently for him to finish as she found a spot on a bench outside of the store to wait, swatting away the pesky bugs that always accompanied summer weather. "You do know that you have to throw up the stuff you eat after an hour, right?"

"Yeah, I've figured that over the past—oh how long?—_three years _since Wheeljack added the feature_."_

"Then why do you still insist on eating the stuff Blue?" she asked with a sigh as she watched a mother and her young daughter exit the store. The little girl was tugging on her the bottom of her mother's shirt while pointing at the old kiddie horse ride that only cost a quarter.

"Because it all tastes so _good,_ and I can disable the taste receptors for the holoform when it comes back up."

Victoria shook her head as she continued to watch the mother dig around her pocketbook for the needed coin. "Did you see anything on your patrol?"

"Yes. I saved another turtle from becoming squished."

The teenager shook her head again this time in quiet wonder. Bluestreak had been on Earth for nearly a decade before she "woke up," but because the Autobots tended to stick to big cities for those years, it hadn't been until he was driving around the rural areas of the country for a few months that he had his first encounter with road kill. Victoria, who had been riding with him at the time, had thought nothing of the stiffened carcass of an opossum lying on the edge of the road, but Bluestreak had freaked out, wheels squealing to a stop as he tried to figure out how to help the animal.

It had taken a long time of explaining for Bluestreak to finally understand that it was an everyday occurrence for wild animals like opossums to be hit by vehicles and that there was nothing he could do. The ride back home had been frighteningly quiet, and Victoria had known that Bluestreak had been extremely upset over the death of the animal and the fact that humans would be so careless and nonchalant about taking a life even if it was an animal. But he never brought the incident up again. It was a week later that she had noticed he had changed his driving habits: slowing down his normal speed until it was little less than the speed limit, taking extra precaution around heavily wooded areas, and swerving far from the edge of the road whenever an animal happened to be wandering around.

The new driving habits persisted until he had picked up his final habit two months after the incident. Victoria had once again been accompanying both him and Smokescreen for a routine patrol when Bluestreak happened to suddenly slam on his breaks and swerve slightly off the road. As Smokescreen, who had been following close behind them, spoke pointed, loud words in Cybertronian, Bluestreak had ignored him and activated his holoform to step out of his alt-mode. Victoria had watched in slight surprise as he had picked up the turtle that had been slowly making its way across the road and safely deposited it on the side it had been heading to. Once that was done, he had continued down the road as if nothing had happened and like Smokescreen wasn't still grumbling.

And thus, Bluestreak the turtle savior had been born. All joking aside, the young Autobot took his impromptu position seriously. After witnessing so much death in what seemed like an endless war, life was either a very precious thing or death was so common that another lost life just didn't matter. Bluestreak fell into the first category, and that prompted him to find ways to save any life, even if it meant having people angrily honk their horns at him because he stopped to help or wait for an animal to cross the road. And that was one of the many things Victoria adored about her spark bonded brother: he had such a big, compassionate spark even after all the shit he had been through.

"Hey!" Victoria snapped out of her thoughts as Bluestreak obnoxiously dragged out the word to regain her attention. "You still haven't told me why you called. Do you need something? Did your shopping trip go bad? Does your dad still believe in a diet of all meat and beer?"

"No, something just came up." The brunette looked over when she heard a loud "But mommy!" and spotted the little girl staring up at her mother with huge, watery eyes. "Hold on. I need to do something right quick."

Bluestreak hummed and dutifully waited patiently as Victoria walked over to the mother-daughter pair. She caught the very tail end of the mother trying to explain that she didn't have any loose change and cleared her throat to gain their attention. "Hi. I couldn't help but notice that you seem to be in a little bind."

"I'm sorry," the mother immediately apologized, the dark circles beneath her eyes seeming to become more prominent as her daughter began to hiccup from oncoming tears. "We didn't mean to disturb you. We're just going now."

"But mommy!" the little girl cried, grasping the woman's shirt tightly. "I wanna horsie ride!"

"Jessica—" The woman was cut off as the girl hiccupped again and turned to Victoria. "I'm sorry."

"Oh no! I didn't mean to make it seem you were causing any problem." Victoria slid the hand that didn't hold her cellphone into her pocket and fiddled around for a moment before pulling out a quarter. "I just wanted to offer you a quarter when I noticed you were having a little trouble locating one."

"Yay!" the girl cried before her mom could deny the coin. "I get to ride the horsie!"

Victoria smiled as she handed the quarter over. "No shopping experience is complete with a ride on that old horse."

The child giggled and hurried over to the contraption, struggling a little while climbing up onto the horse. A fleeting sign of relief flashed across the woman's face before she sighed. "Thank you. Normally I have spare change on me just for things like this, but I just…"

"No problem," Victoria supplied as the woman trailed off. "I carry a quarter around all the time for the gumball machine. I figured I could go one shopping trip without one."

The woman smiled and thanked her once more before walking over to help her daughter put the quarter in since the kid couldn't reach the slot from where she sat on the kiddy ride. Victoria watched them for a moment before putting the phone back to her ear. "I'm back."

"I guess that means no gumball for you," Bluestreak immediately said, having listened to the whole exchange on the other end of the phone. "You know, it's a good thing you never liked gumballs after breaking your tooth on one."

"Don't remind me. And that was a jawbreaker, not a gumball. Anyway you'll never guess who we ran into while shopping."

"Freckle Face," he answered. "Freckle Face" was the "creative" nickname they had given the boy that seemed to always find his way into Victoria's classes. After talking to Smokescreen, Bluestreak was convinced that the once schoolyard bully held a longstanding crush on the girl, but Victoria didn't believe it. Guys evolved from picking on girls to impressing them around the time they entered high school. Right?

"No, but now that you mention it, I should probably be on the lookout for him. He always pops up when I least expect. But that isn't who we ran into. We ran into _Ariel_—my future _stepmom."_

"Wow." He paused for a moment. "Is that a good or bad thing?"

"Well." She hesitated. "My dad seemed to like to her. I mean, he just started…talking to her like they had known each other for years. You know how long it took him to be so talkative around Wheeljack."

"Yeah, around the time of his third visit from the fire department. That's when they discovered they had a common interest and stuff. I had never realized how much your dad was like Eric when he started to _really_ talk."

"Yeah." Victoria watched the little girl's short ride come to an end, and the pair happily left. There was fleeting stab of jealousy to watch the two walk off hand in hand, but Victoria pushed it away. The loss of her mother still smarted whenever she witnessed similar pairs. "I just…I don't know if my dad's ready for something like that. It wasn't so long ago that he finally accepted that my mom wasn't just on an extended shopping trip or something. I don't wanna see him get hurt so shortly after that."

"Well it's not like they're going to jump into a relationship right after meeting. They might even forget each other after this meeting until they run into each other again in a couple of months. You only know that they might get together because you've lived through this once before. Maybe _this_ Terrence and _this_ Ariel aren't meant to be."

"Don't say that!" Victoria hissed into the phone as someone walked past her to enter the store. "Ariel made my father very happy! I wouldn't want another chance at happiness for him to be taken away like that."

"Then why are you so unsure that he isn't ready for someone else?"

His question caught her off guard and made her pause. Why was she concerned? She knew from experience, from hearing what her father had said, that Ariel would be the most important thing to him one day. It was just…before she had never met Ariel. There had never been any thought of the woman filling her mother's place because by the time that had happened Victoria had been out of the house and on her own for a while. Meeting her just seemed to inspire that feeling. That Ariel would wiggle her way into the position the teen's mother had always filled. That didn't make her altogether ecstatic.

"She would never take the place of your mom Vicky," Bluestreak said softly after quietly analyzing the emotions flowing across their open bond. "And I'm sure your dad would _never_ replace that spot even with Ariel. But…it's been five years. Your dad's finally starting to cope, and maybe that's a sign it's time to move on. Sometimes new relationships help a person along faster."

Victoria suddenly felt teary eyed, and she used the palm of her hand to knead her stinging eye. "Experience has shown me that I'm really bad at not knowing when to get over stuff like this. I make bad calls at either clinging to negative feelings or pretending it's not there but never really moving on."

Bluestreak was silent, and the only thing she could hear was the rumbling sound of his engine as he cruised down whichever road he was on. "You never really 'get over' the loss of someone so close. You just have to acknowledge that they're not coming back and that you don't have the ability to change that. There was a long time when all I could think of was what I could have done to save them. I was still a youngling then, but I still thought there was _something_ I could have done. Clinging to that just made my grief stretch out longer than it probably should have. Believe it or not, there was a time when I didn't really talk or socialize with anyone, and that was the reason why.

"It wasn't until my guardian at the time snapped me out of that that I realized how critical my wellbeing had become. He gave me a brief scolding for allowing myself to deteriorate to such a state and told me it was time to stop crying over the past and anchor myself to the present. It wasn't exactly something a youngling would have wanted to hear, but it woke me up. Made me realize that I wasn't living in any way that my creators would have wanted me to live. My guardian went on to explain that my creators had sacrificed their lives to ensure that I would be able to live on and make something of myself, not wonder everyday about what I could have done to change the outcome of something that could never be changed. I guess that was the moment I started to 'get over' their deaths.

"I still haven't completely done that though," he went on to say. "'Got over it,' I mean. I remember them every day and wonder what it would be like to still have them here, but I no longer cling to the guilt that I might have been able to save them if I had done something different. If I hadn't followed my sire to work that day and caused him to worry over my safety instead of finding himself a safe place to hunker down and wait for the air raid to end. If I had told my carrier that I had gone with him, maybe then she wouldn't have been on the streets searching for me but at home where it was safe. I accept that they're gone, and even though it still saddens me, I can move on with my life and be happy."

Victoria was too shocked to say anything once Bluestreak stopped speaking. For the nine years they had known each other not once had Bluestreak mentioned anything before his time as an Autobot. While Wheeljack was only quiet about certain parts of his past, Bluestreak made it seem as if he had _always_ been an Autobot. He just never spoke anything of it. To have him dredge up such a painful memory…

"Who was your guardian?"

"Prowl."

Of course. Perhaps the most insensitive mech around was the one to snap a youngling out of such a sensitive period of time. He had a knack for making people "see the light" in a way. Maybe not the light they wanted to see, but he did it anyway.

"That's why I don't have any problem with him," Bluestreak continued without prompting. "He's in a pretty tough position, and a lot of mechs under him give him a hard time because they don't like the way he runs things. But he makes decisions that others couldn't dream of making. Like with me. Others just danced around the subject and didn't directly address it because even though they saw it was doing more harm than help, they just didn't want to deal with it. Jazz was even hesitant, but I haven't figured out if that was because he wanted Prowl to handle it or if he wanted to stay the 'good guy' because I didn't like Prowl for a while after that especially when he got Smokescreen transferred to the base we were stationed at the time and made me go talk to him two times every week. Actually I didn't talk to him for an orn and bunked with Jazz until I realized that with Prowl I was actually able to get a full recharge cycle because Jazz had this thing about always trying new kinds of music at times that just didn't suit a youngling's schedule. But I still ignored him and –I'm getting off topic , aren't I?"

"No, you can keep going. I don't think my dad's coming out anytime soon."

"Eh, if I get started I won't stop, and this isn't about me. I still don't think you've got anything to worry about. Even if they do get together and make another squishy brother for you it's not like they're going to start tonight or anything. You've got plenty of time to get to know this woman, and you're dad's going to need someone when we leave."

"So it's a definite thing now?" Victoria asked, anticipation and apprehension curling in her stomach. "You guys are taking off once we graduate."

"Not _definite_ really," Bluestreak hedged. "Wheeljack's still looking into it, but…we can't stick around here much longer Vicky. I mean, it's better than anywhere else we've stayed so far, but we've been here longer than we probably should have. If we stay much longer, we'll draw unwanted attention to this area from both Decepticons already on Earth and those humans that aren't so friendly."

Victoria frowned at the reminder. She hadn't known of Decepticon activity on Earth until her and Bluestreak had begun high school. Apparently they hadn't viewed the knowledge important enough to share until an odd jet had whizzed over their heads at amazing speeds that had had some people in the town talking for days._ Then _it had become prudent to inform her.

As funny as it may have sounded, the Decepticons were the least of her worries maybe because she had already dealt with a dozen of them before. No, it was the humans that caused her concerns. Before they had found her, the three Autobots had encountered a group of humans that had somehow known of their existence. They had been immensely surprised when the humans had attempted to capture them but had escaped easily. It was the cause of worry, this group's apparent animosity towards them, but other than that one encounter they hadn't seen these humans again.

Wheeljack didn't want to take any chance though. If these humans knew about them it was a possibility that they could be found again and an even bigger risk that the group might have learned from their failure the first time, hence the reason for this sudden need to relocate. Staying in one place for too long just drew too much attention.

"You can still come with us," Bluestreak said. "We wouldn't mind. Actually, we'd kinda prefer it. But you can still go out on your own or stay here if you want. It's just we might not be able to talk as much or see each other then. But we understand if you want to live a normal human life. I mean, you're able to go and do other stuff now like visit your brother or start some career a little more exciting than an _accountant." _Victoria giggled at the exaggerated sarcasm. "And maybe we're putting you in more danger if we keep you close. Decepticons are more likely to find you if you're constantly with us as opposed to miles away or those humans might find out your connection to us and try to use you. I wonder if leaving you behind might be better…"

Victoria couldn't hide her dislike of the idea. She had accepted her life here, the second family that had similarities to the original but still wasn't the same, but the Autobots were the only connection she had to her previous life. Besides that connection, she _really_ wanted to see the others again. Optimus, Swoop, Jazz, Red Alert—she even wanted to see some of the Decepticons, like the Cassettes and Soundwave, Thundercracker, and Skywarp. If Wheeljack and Bluestreak left without her…she might as well resign herself to never seeing them again because she knew how the movies went. The government usually got ahold of the aliens and didn't let them out unless they were needed while conveniently covering up their existence.

"We'll figure it out when the time comes," Victoria finally said. "We still don't even know when you're leaving or how far away you'll move. Maybe we can stick around here for a little while longer."

"Yeah maybe," Bluestreak said with less conviction. "We'll talk about it later. My ETA is two breems if you want me to come pick you up."

Victoria glanced back into the store and saw her dad placing bagged groceries into the shopping cart while having an awkwardly one sided conversation with the poor teenage cashier. "I see my dad coming, so I'll see you back at the house. Maybe we can check out that fair today."

"Okie dokie!"

Victoria ended the call and stood up as her dad walked out of the store with a goofy grin. Well, someone's conversation seemed to have gone _very _well. "So…"

"So what?" her dad repeated as he pushed the buggy towards the row their truck was parked on.

"Don't play _dumb._ You seemed to really hit off with that lady in there."

"Her name's Ariel," he said with a slight sniff. "And I don't know where your teenage mind is going but it aint nothin' like that."

"Where is your old man mind going to assume that my teenage mind is thinking _that?"_

"Because I had the teenage mind before gettin' the old man's."

"But you're a guy."

"Don't give me that! Girls are just as bad as guys except they add _feelings_ to those thoughts. That's why you rarely see a guy your age get upset over a break up. Feelings are the last thing that boy is thinkin'!"

The teenager rolled her eyes at his conclusion and paused tying the bags up to be put in the back of the truck. "Dad, did you pick up _anything_ else other than the stuff already in the buggy?"

"I thought you left because we were done. 'Sides, the game's 'bout to come on."

Victoria sighed as Terrence finished placing bags in the bed of his truck and climbed into the front without another word. Oh that was just _fine._ They'd eat dry knock off brand cereal for supper and wash it down with the rest of the beer they had at home.

She needed to get to know Ariel because her dad needed that woman more than she had previously thought.

**)(**

**Age 18**

Victoria watched as her graduating class happily threw their caps into the air, whoops and hollers deafeningly bouncing off the four walls of the gymnasium as families applauded in the stands. The only cap not to join the traditional tossing stayed clutched between her hands. Everyone looked thrilled at being done with school; a whole new world had been opened for them to explore.

Except for Victoria.

While some of her classmates planned for college or applying for jobs in the area with their new diploma hopefully increasing their pay a little, Victoria had never felt so lost. There had always been some sort of plan after this milestone. Go to college, get through it as quick as possible, get a job, work her way up to a comfortable position, live a normal life. A normal, boring life. That plan didn't really appeal to her anymore especially after realizing her "perfect plan" was a complete bust.

Twirling her cap around in her hands, Victoria glanced around at the crowd of students and parents that continued to grow as said parents wandered down to the floor. Some familiar faces waved her way and she responded in kind. Having Bluestreak as a best friend was like an instant access to popularity. Whereas previously she had faded into the background and avoided most social situations, now she had so many "friends" that she could barely remember which one was Jennifer and which one was Jessica.

Victoria gasped as she was suddenly lifted from behind and twirled around in the air. "We made it through high school! You shouldn't look so_ gloomy."_

"There was more excitement the first time, Blue," she answered with a small chuckle as her feet reunited with the floor. She turned around to see the excited tanned blond grinning from ear to ear as his graduation gown engulfed his body from the neck down. She noted his missing cap. "But it's your first time! What are you going to do now?"

"I feel the sudden urge to say I'm going to Disney World," Bluestreak said with a grin, and all Victoria could do was shake her head and smile with him. At least he was learning some of the culture even if it came from cheesy commercials. "Maybe we can convince Wheeljack and your dad to let us go as a graduation gift. It's better than getting something that explodes from 'Jack. Plus I still wanna go meet all the cartoon characters. That would be cool."

She didn't have time to explain (again) that it was just people in costumes because a hand roughly messed her hair from behind, making her bend forward from the weight. "That's my girl! Graduatin' top of your class and everything."

Victoria swatted the hand away to turn around and see her dad broadly grinning as his "close friend" Ariel stood behind him smiling. It had been nearly a year since formal introductions between the two, but Victoria hadn't actually got to know the woman until a few months ago. Despite her commitment of getting to know Ariel, Victoria had allowed her earlier feelings to stand in the way and created assumptions that delayed any type of relationship to form. What if Ariel had this annoying habit? Like picking her nose in public when she thought no one was watching?

(Victoria had actually had a discussion about this with Smokescreen. They had been arguing about something, probably concerning her brother, and the subject had come up. Smokescreen had given her a startlingly high number of people he had seen doing this act and gleefully told her that one of those people just happened to shake her hand afterwards. Victoria now made sure that she wasn't the first to shake _anyone's_ hand.)

What if the redhead had this deep, dark secret? Like she had been married before, killed her husband with rat poison, and fled New York to pose as a Pre-K teacher to avoid the authorities? What if her pretty red hair came from a bottle? Victoria was the first to admit that her theories were _very _farfetched, but she couldn't put aside her prejudices so easily and clung to any reason not to like this woman.

It wasn't until an outing around Christmas that she actually started to get to know Ariel. Every year various trails in the park would be lit up with Christmas lights, and Bluestreak had managed to convince everyone to walk through some of the trails, which wasn't hard since the Autobot had been getting everyone to go on these walks every year since Victoria's mother had taken them (Victoria, Bluestreak, Eric, and a reluctant Smokescreen) the first time so many years ago.

It just so happened that Ariel became an added addition last year, courtesy of Bluestreak. At first, Victoria had been angry with the set-up, refusing to hold Bluestreak's hand like the friends had done since a young age and still did occasionally out of habit. But as the outing continued and Victoria watched her dad and Ariel interact (strictly as _friends)_, she came to find that her injustices and excuses were just wrong. Ariel was a sweet woman that didn't have a problem speaking her mind when she disagreed with a topic. In some ways she reminded Victoria of her own mother. Her dad and Ariel seemed to click just like her parents had.

After that Victoria hadn't pointedly ignored the woman whenever she had visited. It was easier to tease her dad about the slowly growing relationship when the redhead was there to tease him as well. If you added Wheeljack it became a party. All while Bluestreak sat on the side, feeling smug that his plan had worked.

Now Victoria accepted her congratulations squeeze from the New Yorker as Wheeljack danced his way around students to get to them. The graduating class had fought tooth and nail to get their favorite teacher involved in some way especially since he was leaving the school right along with them. He ended up getting the menial task of handing diplomas to the principal, but knowing that his former students liked him enough to get him involved made him happier than having the honor of handing them a piece of paper. Plus he got his own cap and gown and made the few rehearsals more exciting while the principal could only grin and bear it with the promise of never seeing the strange man after today.

Wheeljack threw himself at Bluestreak first, dramatically congratulating his "son" before doing the same with Victoria. She resigned herself to the treatment before swatting at his curly head for clinging to long. "Okay, okay. Go me and Blake. Now can we go home? I remember dad saying something about grilling steaks."

Bluestreak giggled, knowing that her dad's grilling had been on her mind during most of the ceremony. Steak just seemed to rank higher than receiving your second diploma from high school and thinking about it for over an hour made a person hungry. Go figure. He looked towards the gym's exit and his smile widened. He poked Victoria to gain her attention, and she turned away from the adults. "Hey Vicky! I think you might want to postpone lunch a little."

Victoria looked at him with confusion, and he happily pointed towards the doors, mentally nudging her in that direction. Seeing as she wasn't going to get out of it, the new graduate turned in that direction and froze. Terrence called out to her in confusion as she tore off across the gym, kicking off her flip-flops as they hindered her progress and apologizing to some people when she accidentally bumped into them. As she reached her destination, she flung herself at the young adult, ignoring his grunt of pain as she squeezed him tightly. "You actually came!"

"Of course I did," Eric said as he grabbed her up and swung her around, barely missing Smokescreen as the brunet jumped back. "How could I miss my lil' sis's graduation? I hear it's a big deal."

Not really, but that didn't matter right now. It had been five whole years since the last time she had seen her brother, and even though they spoke over the phone on nearly a weekly basis, it was still easy for her to believe that she'd never see him again. After all it had happened the first time, and she didn't know if weekly phone calls would be enough to bring him back.

"How long have you been here?" Victoria asked when she finally let go.

"Got here 'round the time that guy got up to talk. I thought the smartest kids got to talk; how come you and Blake didn't?"

Victoria shrugged in dismissal. Honestly it didn't seem fair to the other students. New subjects didn't take long for Bluestreak to learn because he was able to download and retain the needed information from sources on the internet. It didn't make him an expert on those subjects by any means, but it was how he learned to speak Spanish in one day. Victoria went through school like they were simple refresher classes. Math was a good example of that. It was easy to get good grades when you already knew the subject.

"I wish I could've spoken for my graduatin' class," Eric said wistfully, letting the question go unanswered. "I would have said what everyone wanted to hear instead of that 'go out into the world and make something of yourself' crap. Like school's out, good luck findin' a parkin' spot at Cracker Barrel, and I'm the one who painted Principal Jackson's office with lewd pictures for the senior prank. Shawn was look out, but I did most of the work that the football players were takin' credit for. But that got them suspended, so I guess I'm cool with it."

Victoria shook her head at her brother. Five years and having Smokescreen as a roommate had done nothing to change him. Speaking of Smokescreen, she glanced over to see his holoform giving the pair an appraising look. For old times' sake, Victoria stuck her tongue out at him, and he reciprocated in kind. Smokescreen was now a little immature, but she figured it had something to do with Eric's constant influence.

Her brother suddenly tensed beside her, and Victoria turned to see their father slowly approaching them while Bluestreak, Wheeljack and Ariel stayed behind. Smokescreen glanced between all three before wandering off to join the others as Terrence reached them. The atmosphere around the trio became tense, and strangers seemed to notice and avoided walking too close. Victoria looked between the two males just waiting for an argument to ensue. No matter how hard she had tried, Eric had still left the house with unresolved animosity remaining between father and son.

Terrence was the one to make the first move, not looking at Eric as he awkwardly scratched the back of his head. "So…you been doin' good these past few years?"

Eric's shoulders relaxed a little as he answered, "It's been good. It was a little hard at first, but me and Shawn are doin' good now. Got an apartment not far from campus. Where I go 'cause Shawn prefers online classes…and stuff."

_"Can you be anymore awkward?"_ Victoria asked herself as she watched the father and son shuffle their feet while trying to come up with more to say. She nudged her dad in the stomach to gain his attention. "Dad, I'm still hungry."

"Oh yeah!" he said, catching his daughter's implication as he continued to address his son. "You know, we're goin' back to the house to celebrate. No point in tryin' to fight all these people for a place to eat…would you like to come with us? Not that you need permission or an invitation to come back home…'cause you don't. Just lettin' you know. We got burgers; I know how much you like homemade cheeseburgers."

And just like that, whatever bitterness still plagued the meeting was swept away. They'd have to talk more later, but for right now the simple fact that Terrence was allowing his son back into the home without any quarrel was enough to sweep their problems under the rug. For the moment at least. Victoria could see that her dad honestly regretted running his oldest child off, and she had to wonder as they were finally joined by the others.

Was this really how easy it could have been to fix her family? Could she have avoided all the heartache if she had even _tried _instead of pretending like it never happened? She could've had her brother again, kept her dad, had a great stepmother and eventual stepbrother, and-

"Ooh! Let's stop somewhere and get ice cream! Like a sundae or something. I don't care for burgers and steak. They taste funny."

"But you can eat gallons of ice cream and dozens of cookie without a problem?"

"Of course _Shawn_. You can't have one without the other. Which means we have to get cookies too. Preferably chocolate chip. Or the black ones with the white stuff in the middle. Actually, we should get both. You can never go wrong with getting more cookies. That just means there's more to enjoy later!"

Victoria watched as Smokescreen shook his head in disgust (he never liked the same sugary stuff that Bluestreak seemed to obsess over) and Wheeljack began to happily fill Eric in on every mishap that had taken place since he had left. If she had made up with Eric, he would have made up with their dad. That meant he would have never left the cabin to her because he would have known she wouldn't want it, and because her dad and brother would've been on friendly terms it would have probably gone to her dad, which meant she would have never gone Tennessee to sort through her brother's things.

She would have never had the chance to meet the Autobots or Decepticons.

Bluestreak looked over at her in concern when he felt a flux of negative emotions, but Victoria just smiled until he let it drop, and he turned before seeing that smile abruptly drop as well. What would it be like to have never met Bluestreak? To have never witnessed one of Wheeljack's explosions or never seen the crazy relationship between the Seekers? To never get the chance to interact with a leader like Optimus Prime or know of Soundwave's fatherly qualities? Not to mention all the various quirks the other's had, like Prowl's crashes (she missed those), Red Alert's paranoia, and Ravage's adorable feline side when he wasn't trying to maintain his reputation as a vicious Cassette spy.

What would have happened if her life had been "perfect" the first time around?

**)(**

Bluestreak cradled the two bowls of yummy deliciousness as he carefully maneuvered up the staircase to Victoria's room. Everyone was currently in the living room talking about things that really didn't interest him, like politics and school. Bluestreak was _so_ done with school. It had been fun up until middle school, but then girls had started to want to date him and it became an awkward environment because only a few of the said girls ever seemed to like Victoria, and that was only because they had eventually found another boy to obsess over. He never understood why the others didn't like his friend. Sure, Victoria might not have been the most social being out there, but she wasn't a _bad _person.

Speaking of Victoria, she had retreated to her room earlier. After eating of course. She liked steak as much as he liked cookies. And ice cream. Or better yet, that chocolate cake Vicky made from time to time. She liked to joke about him not having just one sweet tooth but a whole mouth full. It had taken him forever to figure out what that meant.

But he was getting off subject and becoming tempted by the two bowls of chocolate ice cream he carried. Victoria had been trying to act like nothing was wrong, but Bluestreak knew something was up. Ten years had clued him on Vicky's silent quirks. Fiddling with the bottom of her shirt meant nervousness; she was bored when she played with her fingernails; playing with her ear while speaking to someone meant she wasn't really listening; and a smile that didn't reach her eyes meant she was lying. All of that combined with the fact that he could actually feel that she was lying led him to deduce that something was wrong.

So he figured ice cream would cheer her up! He had seen women in movies and on TV turn to the sugary cold treat when they were upset. Besides, you could never go wrong with ice cream.

Bluestreak paused for a moment in front of her bedroom before opening it after letting her know of his presence. Victoria barely glance up at him before going back to typing on the laptop she had finally gotten after saving up for about three years. Her dad hadn't had the spare cash to waste on the electronic, and her part-time job at the local coffee joint didn't exactly pay much, but she had refused to allow Wheeljack to either purchase one for her or make one from scratch. Bluestreak was kinda happy that it took her so long to save up enough cash to buy one because as soon as she had bought it, she spent the majority of her time on it. She spent most of that time doing class work or researching options for after high school, but still, the non-sentient electronic device took her attention away from him.

"Whatcha doing?" Bluestreak asked while placing one bowl on the desk beside her. He caught a glance of her computer screen before retreating to sit on the edge of the bed behind her. "You gonna go to school for engineering? Why can't Wheeljack just teach you everything?"

"It's not a definite plan," she said, closing the current window she had open and clicking on another. This screen showed a generic picture of happy, young college students standing in front of the college. Bluestreak was coming to understand that most colleges seemed to only have room for perfect, happy people based off of all the pictures and brochures he had received through the mail, which didn't seem very fair to him. He knew some very smart people from his class that were neither, and he felt bad that they would never go on to the schools they dreamed of. "I haven't even applied to anywhere."

"Maybe you should take a break from school," Bluestreak said as he took a big bite of his ice cream. The good thing about holoforms: no brain freezes. "It got boring in high school anyway."

Victoria hummed and continued to browse the internet. Bluestreak glared at the screen over her shoulder. This was what he was talking about! Stupid computer always took her attention. So he reached over and slammed it shut. "Vicky! You should be downstairs celebrating, not up here being a party pooper." He pulled her rolling desk chair backwards and forced her onto the bed beside him. "Now what's going on? And don't say 'nothing' because I know something's up."

Victoria huffed and crossed her arms, but Bluestreak forced them straight again. He wasn't giving her a chance to shut him out, physically or mentally. And crossed arms meant she was trying to do just that. "Why can't you mind your own business for once?"

"Because I'm naturally nosy. One time a little before I was officially inducted into the Autobot army, I decided to help Prowl figure out who was gluing stuff to the walls of the base, like furniture, and reading pads, and Mini-Bots, even though he told me not to get involved. Jazz thought it was all hilarious, but it annoyed Prowl to no end, especially when he found Cliffjumper glued to the ceiling of his office. Anyway, so I got curious and started snooping around to figure out who would even have enough glue to do that. I accused Wheeljack first, but he had an alibi; then Ratchet but he said if he wanted to glue anyone to the wall, he would have glued Wheeljack, and then he threw a wrench at me and yelled at me to get out of his med-bay so he could fix Wheeljack. That was Wheeljack's alibi by the way. Apparently he had blown his legs off right before the gluing started and Ratchet was making him suffer for a little while and maybe learn to not blow things up, but I don't think Wheeljack ever learned that lesson. I just accused Ratchet because he was standing right next Wheeljack at the time. Anyway, there was Jazz, and Tracks, and Mirage, and Huffer, and Hoist, then Grapple, and Smokescreen, and Inferno. Oh! I even accused Optimus, and Ironhide, and Bumblebee, but I think at that point I was just accusing people because I felt like it. Red Alert started saying it was me and I was just trying to get attention on someone else. So I accused him too just for the heck of it. He threw a hissy fit and yelled at Prowl for raising a delinquent, which I never understood. Yeah Prowl became my guardian when I was young but it's not like he raised me from a sparkling-hood. But Red Alert having flawed logic wasn't unusual. It still isn't. Anyway—"

"Okay I'll talk!" Victoria finally interrupted. "You've chipped away my defenses."

"I knew you'd see it my way," he said victoriously. "It was Sides and Sunny by the way. They had just been transferred to our unit and were showing off their pranking abilities. Now what's been bothering you all day? I noticed it started around the time your brother showed up, but I thought that would make you happy."

Victoria shrugged and started fiddling with the bottom of her shirt. "I just started thinking."

"'Bout what?"

"You are _really_ persistent."

"It's part of my overall charm."

The teenager rolled her eyes as he smiled. "Whatever. I've just been thinking about everything that's changed."

"Isn't that a good thing? All the bad stuff is going away. Most of it anyways."

"I know that, and I'm really happy about that part. Like with my brother coming back. I still can't believe he came to my graduation. I remember silently hoping the first time that he would show up out of the blue and I would see him in the crowd as I walked across that stage. I wanted cry afterwards when it didn't happen because even after five years of trying to hate him, he was still very important to me. But now that he's back, the only thing I can think about is what would have happened if this had occurred the first time. It would have been great; a lot of my other problems would have never happened."

"That doesn't sound so bad," Bluestreak said when she paused.

"That's what I thought. At first. Then I started thinking. If we had kept in contact and made up he would have never left the cabin to me because he would have known that I never wanted it to begin with. I think he left if the first time as a sort of apology, and if I never got the cabin—"

"We would've never met," he concluded for her. He never thought of that. "But you don't have to worry about that now! You've already got us and don't need the cabin."

"Yeah, but I can't help wonder what my life would be like if I had never met you guys. And in order for that to happen my life had to suck." The teen suddenly stood up and began to pace around the small room while Bluestreak silently watched. "And when I thought about that, I couldn't help but remember what Skywarp said right before Wheeljack's invention screwed up. Remember? He said that out of all the people in the world—the fans, people with less issues, just someone _not_ me—_I _was the one that got to meet you guys. What made me so special? I barely knew anything about you, and I sure as hell never wished for something like that to happen. And then _this_ happens, and I don't know!"

"What are you trying to say?" Bluestreak asked with tentative confusion as she sat back beside him in a huff. "Whatever it is, it must be important for you to suddenly remember something said by a _Decepticon_ over ten years ago."

"I've just been so focused on fixing everything in my life up until the point where I'm physically twenty five again that I'm starting to wonder if I should even be focused on that."

"What do you think you should be focused on? Because I thought you were currently focused on trying to figure out what you really want to do before heading to college. Do you not want to go anymore?"

Victoria chewed on her bottom lip for a moment, staring intently at the floor for a moment before turning to him. "What if I'm just not meant to live the normal life I always wanted?"

"Well that would be too bad because I know you like normal."

"Would it?" she countered, and he just shrugged. "Blue, I don't even know what 'normal' is anymore! I always thought it was just not doing anything stupid or so extreme that people questioned your sanity. To get a stable career and start a family in your early twenties. I was actually upset when I turned twenty five and still didn't have a husband and child. But I look at those things now and wonder how I even came to those conclusions. My new definition of normal involves giant alien robots who disguise themselves as vehicles, being bonded to at least three of those aliens and not even questioning it like I probably should, and having to convince the fire and police department every other week that Wheeljack isn't a terrorist. I'm trying so hard to fit myself back into the mold of an average person when that just isn't _me_ anymore."

Victoria looked up to see Bluestreak's vivid blue eyes staring back at her. "I don't even like that you and 'Jack have had to use those holoforms for all these years. I know you guys use them to blend in more efficiently, but I just can't label that fake body as _you._ I want to be able to talk to you guys face to face. And I want to see the others again and be able to talk to them. I want to be able to help you guys in some way…I don't want to be what others think is normal."

Bluestreak blinked before a slow smile spread across his face and he grabbed her shoulders with a firm grip. "Are you saying what I think you're saying? Because if you are that's great! But if you aren't I'd understand too. I mean, I know I occasionally get the wrong message from people. Like one time when I was first getting the hang of using a gun, Jazz told me to aim for a big red target, and Ironhide just so happened to be walking past where we were practicing, so I thought Jazz was talking about him. In hind sight that was probably stupid to think, but Jazz gave me props for being able to nail 'Hide right in the rear without a problem. Of course, he had to do that as we ran for our lives because Ironhide doesn't enjoy getting hit in the posterior…unless it's Chromia doing it."

Victoria laughed as his story came to an end. "You're not getting the wrong message. I know I've been putting off giving you guys an answer, but honestly what else do I have to do? I tried going the 'being a normal person' route and it didn't exactly turn out that well. I can't help but think that Skywarp was right. It couldn't have been just a coincidence that I met you guys and giving it up now just seems like a wasted effort."

The holoform squealed and grabbed the girl up into a tight hug all the while sending a wave of happy feelings her way. She laughed again and patted him on the back. "Yay! Now we don't have to figure out dates we can visit each other, or live miles away from each other, and I don't have to handle Wheeljack's explosions alone, and I don't have to worry about that nasty Seeker swooping down and taking you away when I'm not around, and—"

"What was that last part?"

"…you can make me cake every once in a while?"

The teenager rolled her eyes and indulgently patted his blonde hair. "Of course. Because 'cake' sounds just like 'nasty Seeker.'" Bluestreak smiled sheepishly. "We should probably go tell Wheeljack that he needs to find a suitable place for at least one human to live. That is, if he approves of letting me tagalong."

"Course he will. I think he was even anticipating 'cause he told me a week ago that he found a nice little place somewhere out west that had plenty of land for us to wander around in our root modes without a problem, and when he showed me the pictures I saw a little cottage or something that looked really nice but way too small for us to fit in without using the holoforms, so I only assumed that it's meant for a real human. Because he was looking at pieces of land that didn't have such nice looking places to live but were a lot cheaper, and you know he can only make so much fake currency without someone being suspicious. I'm actually really surprise that no one's caught on after seventeen years, but I guess since it's all done through computer transactions and the people get the money anyway there's no reason to look too much into it. Maybe they'd be more curious about it if they knew Wheeljack's official job was a former high school chemistry teacher, but even then—my ice cream melted."

Victoria laughed again at how dejected he looked as he finally remembered his bowl of ice cream. He always made the pouting look so cute no matter what form he took. "Come on. We can get you more and then go talk to Wheeljack and my dad. I think we even have some left over sprinkles from when me and Ariel had to make cupcakes for her Pre-K class."

"I like sprinkles! They taste nasty on their own but somehow they make everything you put them on taste so complete."

The brunette smiled as her companion grabbed the two bowls of now soupy mess and continued to babble as they headed downstairs to the kitchen. She hadn't thought as long or hard on her decision to go stay with the Autobots as she had other things. Even before her little epiphany she had been wavering on the fence on whether to stay or go. That revelation just served as the well needed push in the right direction.

Victoria knew that she couldn't stay with her dad forever. She was a legal adult now, and she knew that her dad wouldn't mind her staying for a year or two to get her stuff together but eventually he would push her out to be on her own. There wasn't anything out in California where Eric and Smokescreen were currently staying either, so why bother trying to live with those two bachelors? Really her only options were heading out on her own or tagging along with Wheeljack and Bluestreak. Since the first option had already been tried, Victoria decided that she would go with the second one.

Besides, she felt an undeniable urge to stay with the 'bots. What if they separated and were never able to see each other again? And they still occasionally got confused when it came to human things, like slang or something else they couldn't easily look up on the internet. She was the only human who knew about them, and she wasn't going to lose them when the government came along because she wasn't there to stake her claim. The other humans that came along could have their own Autobots, but Wheeljack and Bluestreak were part of _her_ group of Autobots. And unless she liked those humans, she wasn't sharing.

Victoria had finally resigned herself to the fact that her life would most likely revolve around the Autobots for many years to come.

* * *

**AN: **Yay rest of chapter :D! I just realized yesterday that I have only about a week and a half left of classes, so maybe I'll be able to _finally_ start writing and updating on a regular day at least until winter break ends. If I'm gone for more than two weeks again, check out my profile because usually I put some kind update there with a guesstimate of how long the next chapter will take. Sometimes I'm wrong, but hey, at least it let's you know that I _am_ working on it ;) Next chapter will pick up a bit...I hope at least.

Concerns, critiques, or praises are totally appreciated :D (And I promise to find the time to respond to you guys this time :3)


	4. Fate's Sense of Humor

**AN:** I'm a day later than I wanted to be, but you know what? Life happens when you seriously don't want to. Other than that, I have no excuse :) But I've got finals starting next week, so I have no idea when the next update will be :( Hopefully I can it out sooner rather than later.

"_Thinking"  
:Comm. Talk:  
_**~Bond Speech~**

Time Units  
Joor: ~1 hour  
Megacycle: ~2.6 hours  
Decivorn: 8.3 years  
Orn: 13 days  
Nano-klik (kick): ~1 second  
Breem: 8.3 minutes  
Deca-cycle: ~3 weeks  
Vorn: 83 years

* * *

A New Version of Reality

Chapter Two

Fate's Sense of Humor

**Don't grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form. ― Rumi**

* * *

Thundercracker groaned as a sudden weight on his back pulled him out of the short recharge he had managed to fall into between shifts of avoiding Shockwave at all costs and acting like he couldn't hear Starscream's insistent pings over the comm. link. Of course he wouldn't be able to relax for even a quarter of a joor—that was just _way _too much to ask for.

And now he was being submitted to snuggling—a Decepticons' worst nightmare. Especially for one who wasn't too big of a fan of lovey-dovey displays, which was too bad for him because his brother happened to be the one Seeker who didn't mind being touched and liked to annoy him from time to time. _"I swear Primus is always using me for his comic relief!"_

"Skywarp, I thought it was your shift on the deck."

"I _love_ you, TC~"

The blue Seeker jumped up, dislodging his unwanted occupant. Skywarp just grinned up at him from the floor, and Thundercracker finally noticed the jumble of happy-borderlining-uncaring emotions being sent over the trine bond that seemed to correspond with the dim red optics and loopy expression on the other Seeker's face. "Skywarp…_please_ don't tell me you're overcharged. _Again._"

"TC, how come the rooms are _orange?_ I liked the purple paint better. It gave the room character!" Once he had managed to stand back up, he pointed at the lamp on the desk. "And who let Shockwave in after hours? He better not think I'm giving him a freebie or something. It's always the quiet, creepy ones you gotta look out for."

Thundercracker vented in exasperation as Skywarp shimmied onto the berth and snuggled into the other Seeker's side, murmuring some old Seekerlet ditty before dropping off into recharge. The older jet would have been more concerned by the behavior, but this was _Skywarp,_ and it wasn't the first time his younger trine mate had shirked his duties in favor of getting over-energized on the high-grade that the drones kept on hand. He had been doing it since nearly their first orn on Shockwave's ship with the excuse that there was nothing better to do on a ship floating around in the middle of space.

But Thundercracker saw through that ruse easily. Skywarp was using the high grade as a sort of balm; to temporarily forget what was going on around him. The younger Seeker hadn't done very well when they first came online and found an unresponsive end of their trine bond. He had actually responded worse than Thundercracker could have imagined, and it took a lot of soothing and convincing to even get Skywarp to leave the mangled building they had woken up in. He thought he would be able to help Skywarp more once they found the other Decepticons and figured out what was going on.

It only got worse.

They managed to stumble through a good number of demolished streets before bumping into Barricade of all mechs. The scout had taken one look at them, Thundercracker awkwardly bent over to support a limp Skywarp on his shoulder, before leading them through the crumbled city that Thundercracker had never bothered to catch the name of. All he remembered was the black and white mech's crude smirk as he questioned how long the Seekers had finally been online.

Thundercracker hadn't liked that smirk, but the Seeker had tried to ignore it (as well as the rest of the mech in general) as he had been taking care of Skywarp. It was a folly on his part since he was usually the one who was so much more aware of the tiny details like that smirk.

Barricade had led them to where the Decepticons were hunkered down near the outskirts of the city in what was perhaps the only district left in moderately good condition. Thundercracker hadn't believed what he saw when first entering the makeshift camp. There was Starscream, albeit a pretty ugly looking Starscream, ordering drones and other Decepticons around in his annoyingly normal screeching voice. In his surprise, he had lost his grip on Skywarp, and the youngest Seeker had tackled the SIC head on and started clicking in what the other Cybertronians had labeled as part of "Seeker speech" because Starscream had a habit of doing it whenever he was extremely mad at Megatron. In reality it was just an instinct that was triggered due to high levels of distress or frustration. The clicks didn't really mean anything other than to get attention or vent when words just couldn't provide the right outlet; Seekers were less likely to do it as they matured, which was why Thundercracker had been so surprised by Skywarp's actions as he hadn't realized how upset Skywarp had really been.

He had expected Starscream to notice the distress and at least reopen the bond because the SIC would _never _comfort Skywarp in public, but he didn't expect the gunmetal grey Seeker to harshly kick the younger one away. "What's the matter with you? You ignore my hails over the comm. link channel for an entire megacycle and then come back sniveling? Did you cuddle up to an Autobot while you were out wasting time?"

The Decepticons closest to them cruelly laughed as the two Seekers stared at Starscream with surprised and betrayed optics. While Starscream didn't like to show personal feelings towards them in public, he had _never _publically humiliated or injured them like this. As a trine leader, he took care of his trine even if he wasn't the best at doing so (which he was _far_ from being best). What was wrong with him?

"What the frag is wrong with you?" Skywarp had voiced Thundercracker's very thoughts.

"What's wrong with me? You're the one sniveling like a sparkling, or worse an Autobot! Now get back to work. You've wasted enough time being morons today."

Thundercracker and Skywarp had watched him walk away, too stunned to say or do anything. The other Decepticons had trickled away, but neither paid attention to anything going on around them until Barricade stepped up beside them and chuckled. "Not what you expected, huh? _This _Starscream is a bigger bastard than the other, but he's dumber and kisses this Megatron's aft more often."

"You knew about this," Thundercracker had accused with a fierce glare while Skywarp had just stared after Starscream even though the Seeker had vanished by then. "Did you even think to warn us?"

That smirk had appeared on the scout's face once more as he shrugged. "Didn't think I needed to."

Ever since then Thundercracker had been working to get him and Skywarp along in this world. While they were technically a trine with Starscream, it was only in name. There was no personal bond connecting the two with the current SIC, and apparently that wasn't required here if the trine didn't want it. Starscream just relayed orders through the comm. links, and they performed them without question because the faster and more proficiently they did it, the less time they had to spend with "fake Starscream" as Skywarp had dubbed him.

That was why they had agreed to Starscream's sketchy plan of spying on Shockwave. Despite the fact that both Seekers would rather chew on their own wings than be stuck on a ship in the middle of space with _Shockwave_ of all mechs, being around the comical replica of their former trine brother was worse. Skywarp was never even able to look directly at the Seeker without an accusing or hateful glare, like it was Starscream's fault that they had lost their real brother.

Speaking of Skywarp, Thundercracker was suddenly reminded of his presence as a brief, subconscious pulse flashed across their trine bond. He was beginning to worry about his younger brother. Skywarp had been getting over-energized a lot more lately, and it was the conversation they had had on the day it began to become an issue that had him worried. A decivorn or two ago (it was hard to keep track of time up here) Skywarp had interrupted his shift on the top deck and started babbling something about Starscream, _their _Starscream, suddenly reappearing in the bond. Thundercracker could only frown at how happy his brother had been. Even the drones on deck with him had stopped to see what had had the normally morose Seeker so happy, which just contributed to the visible change the black and purple mech had gone under.

But as sudden as that happiness had appeared, it had vanished as well. In the middle of the explanation on how it happened, Skywarp had suddenly clammed up, his optics sparking in sudden pain before rushing out. Thundercracker had automatically rushed after him, losing sight of the other flier and attempting to act normal as he passed Shockwave in the hallway before finally finding his quarry in the room they shared. "Skywarp, what is going on?"

Skywarp stopped his frantic pacing to face him. "It's gone now! I swear, Starscream's end of the bond was active for a nano-klick and then it was gone. What if he's looking for us TC? Maybe we could-"

"Why was your part of the bond open?" Thundercracker snapped with concern. He hadn't meant to ask so sharply but fortunately Skywarp didn't seem bothered by the sharp tone. Maybe he was finally starting to act like the old Skywarp again. "You know what could happen."

"Yeah, you could go crazy from trying to get a response from an unresponsive bond, but TC-"

"No buts." The Seekers glared at one another before Thundercracker looked away with a vented sigh. "I'm just looking out for you 'Warp. It's hard for a two-member trine to function but impossible for one to survive on their own. If one of us dies or goes crazy or _whatever_, how long do you expect the other to last? It's why I keep telling to just block off Starscream's end. It helps a little."

Skywarp incoherently grumbled since he couldn't come up with a response to that. "But TC, I sometimes feel stuff."

"Is it from Starscream's end?"

"Yes…maybe…all I know is that it's not very controlled."

"Then just shut it out. It's probably just residue emotions from Starscream."

Skywarp had quieted down after that, but on occasion there were times when he went against what Thundercracker had told him. It was easy to pick out these times too because he always showed back up to their room with obvious signs of having consumed too much high-grade. They never talked about it the morning after—Skywarp would stumble to the tiny med-bay on board and beg for something to relieve his processor ache and Thundercracker would go about performing the short list of duties that Shockwave gave him to keep the Seekers busy and preferably out of the scientist's sight. They were brothers, and they cared for each other in their own little ways but emotional discussions were not something either one of them liked to do.

But Thundercracker was beginning to seriously worry about Skywarp. These types of nights were getting more and more frequent, and he worried that perhaps the younger mech was starting to become mentally/emotionally unstable. There was also the thought that Skywarp was hiding something from him. He respected the times that Skywarp wanted to be alone, mentally or physically, but those times were growing as well. He didn't want Skywarp to keep secrets if they were causing him harm.

"_I'll talk to him in the morning," _Thundercracker vowed determinedly as he offlined his burgundy optics and began to systematically shut down other systems not needed during recharge. His last conscious thought was that the berth was way too small for the both of them, and he really should have kicked Skywarp onto the floor.

**)(**

Thundercracker jolted online, weapons onlining before other systems even had a chance to start up. He searched the room for the cause of his sudden awakening and became concerned when he realized that Skywarp wasn't there like usual. Skywarp rarely woke up before he did.

_:Shockwave to Thundercracker.: _Thundercracker frowned as his comm. link crackled to life. _:You are beginning to try what little patience I have at the moment. Respond immediately.:_

_:My apologies Shockwave,: _Thundercracker began to apologize, still looking around the room for Skywarp. He still hadn't completely rebooted, which showed because he actually bent over to check under the tiny table in the room as if Skywarp would be hunched under there for some dumb reason. Knowing Skywarp, that could have been very possible. _:I must have-: _

_:I have no care for your excuses,: _Shockwave interrupted in a precise tone. _:Report to the command deck immediately.:_

"_Of course o' rude one," _Thundercracker thought snappily as he left the room after making sure that he was ready. _"Why do all Decepticons have to be so rude? I'm not…most of the time."_

Drones programmed to perform the "morning" duties (there really wasn't any "morning" in _outer space)_ shuffled to the side to avoid bumping into the big mech. It was times like this that Thundercracker resented his big size. Starscream would often complain about being the smallest but the oldest Seeker sometimes envied it. Skywarp was lucky to be what was considered the average size for a Seeker, but even he would chime in from time to time with some complaint just to be part of that conversation.

Speaking of Skywarp… _"Where the frag has he gone off to so early?"_

He shoved his worry aside for the moment as he stepped into the command deck where drones were hard at work to keep the ship going and on track. Except for the one in the corner, which quickly closed the window of the game it was playing when it noticed Thundercracker indulgently smirking his way. That drone was perhaps the most independent of them all, and Thundercracker wasn't about to ruin its fun especially since it reminded him so strongly of Skywarp.

In the midst of the activity stood Shockwave, his free servo typing away at the main computer. The loud sound of the door sliding close behind the Seeker caught the mech's attention, and soon Thundercracker was staring into the one optic that took up the majority of the Decepticon's face. That one optic creeped him out on a number of levels. "Well?"

"Well what?" Thundercracker echoed in confusion. "You were the one who called me."

The optic narrowed slightly at the rudeness. Oh…so _this_ was why all the Decepticons were rude! It was like a never-ending cycle of rude and retaliation. Thundercracker found himself slightly intrigued by the concept when he should have probably been listening to the mech in front of him. Whoops.

"Are you listening to me at all?" Shockwave said after a while with a slightly offended tone in his normally emotionless voice. His optic narrowed even more when the Seeker nonchalantly shrugged. "I expect this type of behavior from the processor-less brother, but careful observation has revealed that you at least hold an iota of intelligence despite your chassis model."

While Thundercracker struggled with either being offended by the not-so-subtle insult and being disturbed by the thought of being "observed" by Shockwave (the latter of the two was winning), Shockwave continued as if the conversation had never been diverted. "I find it difficult to believe that you were not informed of your trine leader's 'surprise' visit.'"

"_Scrap,"_ Thundercracker cursed to himself even as he said aloud, "I can honestly say that I had no idea of his…visit."

"Honesty has little merit among the Decepticons," Shockwave said disbelievingly as he turned back to the computer console.

The Seeker glowered a bit. "Not all Decepticons are the same."

"Excuse me if I chose not to believe you. Seekers have been proven to be by far the most deceptive."

"_Because your only subject has been Starscream," _Thundercracker thought bitterly. _"And the one thing any Starscream will ever have in common is his penchant for over exaggeration. Without that you might as well call him by another name."_

"Was there anything else you needed?" Thundercracker asked calmly. No matter how angry or upset he might have been, he would never show those emotions to his superiors. Showing weakness to superiors was the last thing a Decepticon would do because the higher ranks would be the first to take advantage of it. As much as it pained him to admit, Shockwave's generalizations about Decepticons were usually right. Thundercracker was just the oddball for actually having some type of honor code.

"Yes," Shockwave said, regaining the jet's attention. "As a matter of fact there was. The rest of your trine is waiting in the hanger for you."

Thundercracker cursed and hurried out of the room at a reasonably fast pace. Of course Shockwave would waste his time while Skywarp was most likely trying to claw Starscream's optics out on the other side of the ship. The teleporter _really_ didn't like the SIC, and the fact that he hadn't bothered trying to inform Thundercracker of the final Seeker's appearance had him worried. Dear Primus, if Skywarp offlined Starscream they'd be in such deep slag…

**~Skywarp if you kill him,~ **Thundercracker threatened over their bond as he hurried as fast as he could down the corridors of the ship. Seekers were not meant to run at fast speeds (or long distances)! That's why they could fly!

The only response he received from Skywarp was a mischievous flicker across their bond, which only made him hurry faster. A mischievous Skywarp could only equal trouble and headache. And that was only for Thundercracker; it was usually worse for the mech it was aimed towards.

The teal mech had just reached the hallway leading to the hanger when he heard Starscream screech, "I am not fat!"

"Really? You should probably find some better colors then because that gray? It looks like it adds a couple of tons to you. And you look like a Dorito®. More so than usual that is. And did you do something with your wings? Because…yikes."

Thundercracker sighed as he listened to the conversation going on in the room he stood just outside of. Trust Skywarp to compare their Air Commander to a human chip he had only seen once. It drove Starscream crazy when he didn't know things, and while Skywarp was by no means an expert on unhealthy human snake foods, he still knew a great deal more than Starscream, which probably rankled the Seeker even more. And then he had to bash the wings? **~That was overkill Skywarp.~**

**~What? You'd understand if you could see them too!~**

_**~Overkill.~**_

Despite not even knowing what half the insults meant, Starscream was still screeching angrily on the other side of the door with Skywarp adding to the situation by insulting _something_ whenever there was a brief pause between screeches. After a breem or two, Thundercracker finally decided to break up the two Seekers up by stepping through the door and addressing the screechy voiced one. "What are you doing here Starscream? Has Lord Megatron been located?"

Skywarp pouted at having his fun ruined but remained silent on the outside. Inside, he was snickering like a little youngling and almost tempted Thundercracker to smirk at the infectious glee.

"Of course not!" Starscream snapped with a glare, completely unaware of the silent exchange going on between the other two Decepticons as Skywarp turned his attention from Starscream and tried to break Thundercracker's calm exterior by sending him silly mental images with various emotions attached to them. "You would know my reasons for being here if you didn't so blatantly ignore more."

"My apologies. My communication systems have been temporarily offline due to a meteor storm that occurred a deca-cycle ago. The medic on board has yet to fix it."

Starscream continued to glower at Thundercracker's smooth lie while Skywarp tried not to snicker out loud. While it might have been plausible considering their location, the fact that Thundercracker used the same excuse _every single time_ gave him away. Starscream had long ago picked up on that fact, and it was Thundercracker's subtle act defiance. His dislike for the head Seeker wasn't nearly as much as Skywarp, but Thundercracker still didn't see this "fake" Starscream as his _real_ trine leader and most likely never would. There was only one Starscream for him, and it wasn't the one standing in front of him.

Starscream finally grunted as if he didn't care and waved a servo at Skywarp as if to dismiss him. "I have no need for you anymore."

Skywarp scowled darkly, his previously good mood completely swept away by that one gesture, but didn't protest when Thundercracker subtly nudged him towards the door. He didn't want to be around the pompous, rat faced moron anyway. He had better stuff to do…like beat that drone's high score on the game they had been playing. All he had to do was create a distraction to get Shockwave off the command deck, which wasn't that hard since he did it every other day. As much as Shockwave liked to flaunt his superior intellect, he still hadn't caught onto the pattern yet.

While Skywarp plotted today's mischievous plans, Thundercracker was able to turn his attention completely to Starscream as the younger Seeker left the room. "So, to what _honor_ do we owe for your visit?"

The teal mech would've said that Starscream scowled again, but really, it was hard to tell when he _didn't_ scowl. Seeing Starscream's face made him wonder why him and Skywarp didn't really resemble him, or most of the other Seekers for that matter. They looked more or less like they always had, give or take a few minor differences. Not that he was complaining or anything. They might have been oddballs in appearance, but Skywarp liked to brag about their "superior looks."

"If you weren't acting like such a _hatchling _you would have known."

"I told you—"

Starscream waved off his excuse with a growl as he shoved past Thundercracker and out of the hanger. The other Seeker followed after a moment and sidestepped the drone Starscream had angrily shoved out of the way. "I'm not a fool Thundercracker! You think I don't notice both of your dislike? I choose to ignore it because _I don't care._ As trine leader, Air Commander, and current leader of the Decepticons—"

"Until Lord Megatron is found."

Starscream screeched at the statement. "The point is you work for me first and for most! And your work doesn't entail personal feelings. You do as I say when I say."

"And I have." Thundercracker frowned at the deadly unstable glint in the SIC's optics as he glared. "I apologize Starscream. I have just been on this hip with little direct contact with you for so long."

"You apologize too much for a Decepticon," Starscream grumbled before abruptly stopping in the middle of the hallway. "Is there somewhere where we cans speak _privately?"_

"_On Shockwave's private vessel?" _Thundercracker thought sarcastically but outwardly pointed further down the hall. "Our personal quarters are fairly private."

Starscream nodded and lead the way to three wrong doors before Thundercracker finally pointed out the correct one. It wasn't his fault the SIC didn't ask to begin with. So Starscream entered the tiny room already in a huff, which worsened when he realized how tiny the room was. "This is an abomination! _My_ trine is housed in such a lowly quarters? This isn't even fit for a drone. It's a closet!"

"Actually it's the second largest room on the ship," Thundercracker corrected nonchalantly as he watched Starscream cross the room in three great strides. "It just seems smaller because Skywarp wanted to share rooms instead of taking the one across the hall."

Starscream grumbled something along the lines of "acting like a pathetic youngling" to which Thundercracker fought not to respond. Skywarp didn't room with him because he was a "pathetic youngling;" he did it because he still held an unspoken fear that Thundercracker would vanish just as suddenly as Starscream had. And Thundercracker didn't rebuke him because he had the same fear. It was a paranoia that had naturally formed during the first days of coming to terms with losing their third trine mate, and even though they both knew the chances of it happening again were slim to none, it still didn't curb the paranoia. So he bit his glossa and tried to ignore this Starscream's complaining until he actually got to the reason for coming to this room.

"What has Shockwave been doing in this void?"

Thundercracker could only shrug, his wings moving up and down with the movement. "As far as I know he's just making more drones and sending them to other Decepticon bases as needed."

Starscream shook his helm and began to pace, taking three strides one way before turning and doing the same in the other direction. "That can't be the only thing. He could have stayed on Cybertron even after we lost contact with Megatron if that was the case. But he chose to abruptly leave and do nothing but float through space for the last few vorns. He's hiding something that he does not wish for others to see. Your job was to figure out what that was!"

"And how was I supposed to do that without turning into one of his experiments? The only thing I've _seen _him doing is piecing together drones and shipping them out. I even help him do it every once in a while."

Starscream paused before starting his preplanned rant about failure and watched the blue Seeker curiously. "What about what you _haven't _seen?"

"Apparently there's a secret room located around Shockwave's quarters. There isn't any reason for me to be wandering around on that end of the ship without looking suspicious, but Skywarp wanders all around the ship just to avoid working. He saw Shockwave 'come out of the wall,' but he didn't stick around because Shockwave would have probably 'kidnapped him and done evil scientist things.' Those were Skywarp's words by the way."

"So Shockwave _does _have some secrets," Starscream muttered as he tapped a claw against his chin. "All that is required is a distraction for me to investigate."

"No way," Thundercracker immediately said when he noticed the prompting sidelong glance the other mech was giving him. "Whatever it is, this is where I draw the line."

"_Thundercracker."_

"Look here flying rat; I fear Shockwave's repercussions more than I fear _you."_

"You are part of my trine and you will obey!"

"And the Decepticon in me is prompting me to disobey like a stereotypical Decepticon."

They glared at each other, Starscream trying to make himself look bigger by standing taller and fluffing out his armor while Thundercracker stood steadfastly with his superior height and straight, no-nonsense, poker face. After a while, Starscream finally conceded with a "Well played."

"Thank you."

"But it doesn't change anything. I outrank you and will sacrifice you to further my own agenda."

"And I'll rip out your spark and take your position as Air Commander and Second-in-Command while Shockwave takes over and Soundwave continues to do his spying and loyally searching for Megatron, who will be found as long as Soundwave continues that loyal search because Soundwave is one determined glitch who actually gets things done."

"You wouldn't _dare."_

"Try me."

The grey Seeker opened and closed his mouth as he struggled for something sharp and witty to say, but the blue flier could see that there was nothing to be found in that corrupted processor. Victory point for him. "I command you-"

The SIC's command was cut off as a muted bang was heard and the ship wobbled. Both Seekers watched the door as several drones could be heard running past and back to each other when the sound of pedes had finally died down. "Why do I have the sudden feeling that this is Skywarp's doing?"

"If you were a good trine leader it wouldn't just be a feeling." A disgruntled Starscream was cut off from retaliating once more as the intercom system of the ship crackled to life. While the new Seeker didn't understand the implication of using the ship's intercom instead of the private comm. links, Thundercracker did, and he couldn't help but flinch slightly. That meant that Shockwave was _not_ in a happy mood.

_:Thundercracker,:_ Shockwave said in his smooth, neutral tone. The only sign of something being wrong was how he dragged the other mech's name out in a condescending type of way. _:I believe I have something of yours, and I advise you to retrieve it post haste before I decide that it is no longer of use to me…_alive.:

**~TC! He's touching my wing creepily! Save me!~**

The blue Seeker sighed and glanced at a thoughtful Starscream. "I need to go save Skywarp before Shockwave disassembles him. He's been trying to study Skywarp's warp generator for a while now, so I doubt he'd miss this chance."

Starscream dismissed him with a wave even as he left the room before the other mech. Thundercracker stepped out of the room and watched as his Air Commander wandered off in the opposite direction. He shook his helm in slight disgust. The ever eager egomaniac was truly willing to sacrifice his trine mate if it meant that it gave him a chance to chase after even the slightest possibility to gain some type of advantage over a rival. It really shouldn't have come too much as surprise though. They were Decepticons; it was what they did.

But for some reason Thundercracker had still been hoping, even after all of this time, that _maybe_ their Starscream had been hidden somewhere deep down in the Seeker. It pained him to think that Skywarp was wrong, because then he'd have to give the bad news to the younger mech after the SIC finally left.

**)(**

Starscream muttered to himself as he meandered down one hallway and then another. If Starscream had his own personal ship, where would he place his private quarters? Pfft, that answer was obvious—somewhere where everyone could see his lavish abode that was so much better than theirs because it symbolized his greater power. But Shockwave's mind didn't work like the Seeker's, so he had to grumpily wander further and further into the ship until even the occasional stray drone didn't appear.

"How fragging big can this ship possibly be?" he growled as he turned down another empty corridor. "The outside makes it look so small! Frag Shockwave and his fragging misconceptions."

The sound of pounding pedes reached his audio receptors, and Starscream paused in the middle of the hallway to search for a place to hide in a panic. He couldn't be caught before he had found Shockwave's secrets! Leaving the squishy planet and traveling across space just to leave empty servo? Not an option for the great Starscream! Maybe there was a closet or an abandoned room or—

"Wait a minute," Starscream muttered as he stopped his panicked fluttering. "The only Decepticons on the ship are my trine and that one-optic psycho. That means-"

Ah yes, a mindless drone turned the corner just as he trailed off and slowed down a bit as it spotted the bigger mech. "Commander Starscream sir! I'm afraid you cannot be-"

The drone was cut off by a painful grunt as it collapsed to the ground, the newly made hole in its chest sparking with shredded circuits and visor dimming. Starscream shook his arm to relieve it of the slight shock it had received when ripping through the drone's chest before walking on. "That's _Lord_ Starscream to you, and as acting leader of the Decepticons, I may do whatever. I. _Please."_

Starscream strutted down the hallway, nameless drone already forgotten as he turned the corner to find a dead end. He inspected the three walls carefully, turning around to look back the way he had come before yelling at the ceiling. "No! Where is the fragging lab? Shockwave's quarters have to be here. There is nowhere else on the ship! He wouldn't lower himself to room near the drones, and Shockwave is too private a mech to even want to be around others. Plus it's the furthest place on the ship he could be from my trine. Where is it?!"

In his anger, the Decepticon SIC drew his right leg back and viciously kicked the wall at the end of the hallway. He turned to continue his rant when a near silent ping sounded, and he turned back to the wall he had just kicked out of anger. A slick keypad slid silently from the wall and lit up, Cybertronian letters scrolling across the screen and demanding a password. The Seeker glanced around the hallway before stepping up to the keypad. "I didn't think that would actually work…password? Knowing Shockwave it's something completely boring and scientific…"

For one long breem, Starscream stared at the screen contemplating his next course of action. Using a hardline connection to hack it was out of the question, since it was only natural for Shockwave to implant some sadistic virus that would immediately infect the hacker and slowly offline them. Random guessing was also a no-no because one wrong try would send Shockwave stomping this way; he had to be completely sure or completely desperate before attempting to guess the password. So Starscream stared at the pad in contemplation, claws tapping the tip of his chin in thought. Maybe it was a complicated formula or extremely rare element that many had never even heard about. It had to be something so smart that _no one_ would ever guess it…

With no small amount of hesitation, the Seeker carefully pressed the keys, trying not to flinch at the sounds the keys emitted when they were pressed. The next moment dragged on for what seemed like forever as the mech tensed in preparation for some alarm to go off or weapons to eject from hidden facets of the walls and attempt to vaporize him. He would have to be quick to avoid them…

Suddenly a light on the pad turned green and the door slid silently open. Starscream's optics winked on and off for a few moments as he stared in utter disbelief. "You have _got _to be kidding me. Frag Shockwave and his…unbelievably ingenious idea. So many of us would have expected this complicated system of code when in fact it was the most _obvious_ thing in the world. Even _I _was nearly fooled." He chuckled and stepped through the opening. "From now on, he has no room to comment on my arrogance when he uses his own _name_ for his password."

The smirk on his face slightly grew after the door behind him automatically slid shut, the room's automatic lighting activating, and he rubbed his servos together in eager anticipation. "Now, what has the Decepticon's resident mad scientist been up to lately that requires so much secrecy?"

Starscream's first course of action was to scowl at the puddle of gunk he stepped into by the door. It seeped through the seams of his pede and created a slimy feeling that made him recoil. "Ugh, how disgusting! For being one of Cybertron's greatest minds, he completely lacks any hygiene."

After scrapping the bottom of his pede on the rim of the nearest waste bin, Starscream stepped further into the room and stopped at the nearest table to poke at the tools on it. He shrieked as the pronged tool he was fooling around with activated and shocked him. With a growl, he tossed it across the room without looking and only glanced up when it smacked into a glass tube with a ping. He stared for a moment before hurrying over to the tube that contained a tiny wiggling form, obviously disturbed by the object hitting its current home.

Starscream allowed shock to overcome him as he subconsciously placed his servo on the tube in front of the wiggling hatchling. He hadn't seen a hatchling since…forever! Without the AllSpark to provide life for their planet, hatchlings were a thing of the past. The last batch of sparks had turned Autobot, so Starscream had had no contact with them until they had matured enough to fight. But this one…it was so _tiny—_ barely bigger than half of his servo!

How had Shockwave been able to do this? To not only find the materials to create a protoform but to create a spark as well? Without the power of the AllSpark? Old stories, stories that were practically legend now, spoke of a time before the AllSpark had come to be and how through combing the sparks of pairs another could spark could be created. But those were _legends._ That wasn't even possible…was it?

The servo on the glass balled up before slamming down on the counter beside it. The sparkling within the tank flinched, bubbles erupting from its mouth as it must have squealed, but Starscream paid it no attention. "Frag Shockwave to the pit! How dare he withhold such valuable information from us? From me! To have the ability to create life without that Primus forsaken Cube…we could have won this war eons ago!" He glanced back up to see bright blue optics staring at him in awe. "What the slag are you looking at?"

More bubbles came from the sparkling's mouth as it almost mimicked him, but Starscream was moving on and ignoring the small being. There were other tubes lined up nearby and seemingly prepared to accommodate more tiny forms, but only two were currently occupied. The second form was around the same size as the first, but barely twitched as Starscream tapped against the glass. He noted how much weaker it was compared to the first, who was still wiggling in its tube to try to see him, before looking at the last.

The last one boosted his shock to anger.

Claws digging shallow gauges into the tank, Starscream growled in both anger and offense. "To keep this little project secret is one thing, but to not inform me—Air Commander and overseer of all the Seekers within the Decepticon ranks—of _this_ is crossing the line."

The Seeker stepped over to the monitors off to the side of the tubes and searched for the controls to open the tubes. When he was finally successful, he wasted little time reaching in and plucking the Seekerlet out of the Energon it had been napping in. The sparkling came online with a squawk and began searching the room for the disturbance that had awakened it with vivid scarlet optics. It didn't have to look long and squawked loudly as the Air Commander turned it this way and that, poked at its chest and helm, and flipped it over to exam the premature wing buds on its back. "At least the fragger didn't disable you in some way. Argh, the moron doesn't know how to care for a hatchling let alone a Seekerlet!"

Said Seekerlet growled angrily at being poked at before suddenly purring as Starscream instinctively stroked its sensitive wings. Seekers had sensitive wings, similarly to the Praxian build, and when handled in certain ways would evoke either immense pain or pleasure. It was these sensors that helped them later analyze air currents as they flew and adjusted to whatever feedback they received. It was also a surefire way to calm down any angry hatchling.

While the form in his servo purred like crazy, Starscream examined the other two, one still in stasis and the other practically doing summersaults in its tank. It could be no mere coincidence that _three_ had been created. Shockwave could have stopped at any number: two, five, a dozen. But _three_? No, coincidences didn't happen amongst the Decepticons. Everyone had a specific plan, an ulterior motive, even the most loyal.

And _three_ happened to be the magic number for a trine.

There was no evidence supporting it, but Starscream didn't fully trust any of his fellow "allies," least of all Shockwave. How the scientist had come across the information to stoke his curiosity, Starscream would never know. But he did know that even if he took the hatchlings—disposed of them, kept them, hid them away—Shockwave would just begin the project again until he gained the results that pleased him.

Unless…

The sparkling began to growl again when the stroking stopped, but the other Seeker ignored the noise as he returned to the monitors and began tapping the keyboard with one servo. There was no way for Starscream to completely wipe the mainframe of Shockwave's research; the scientist had likely created multiple backups if that tragedy were to ever occur. But _taking_ the data was another story.

He silently cackled as the data began to copy onto a memory device. He wasn't a scientist per say, but he didn't have to be. He understood the majority of the information he was seeing and believed that with the right resources he could easily recreate Shockwave's work, for which _he _would receive full credit for _and_ create an entire army of his own. He didn't need those fools that still believed their _beloved_ leader was still alive. He could create a new generation of Decepticons—completely and utterly devoted to him and him alone!

"Ow you little pit spawn!"

The Seekerlet growled ferociously but refused to let go of the finger it currently bit down on. Starscream growled right back and shook his hand hard enough to rattle its occupant but not harm it. "How dare you attack the mighty Starscream?" He smirked as the sparkling let go with a confused squeak. "That's right. Recognize your new leader's almighty power!"

Starscream stared down at the shocked sparkling with a roguish smile until the sparkling's shock wore off and it glared back up at him with almost offended twitters and whistles. The Seeker ignored the sounds and roughly patted its helm. "It's alright my little Seekerlet. Your new master forgives you for your actions. Now, what do we do with the other two?"

The mech turned back to the tubes, sighing as he saw the almost lifeless one finally coming online and the first one climbing up the inside of the tank like those organic creatures he had seen on the planet he had been trapped on while "looking" for Megatron. Normally he wouldn't have a problem taking their lives as the one with blue optics was obviously from an Autobot and the other's golden optics reminded him of the spineless Neutrals he had encountered over the many years since Cybertron's "death." But they were the only two the Seekerlet had been in close contact with ever, and there was a high chance that a fledgling trine bond had been created.

Seekerlets were usually encouraged to form trine bonds at a young stage of development or after their first few youngling upgrades. Their sparks, like many other young sparklings, were more open to the creation of bonds than when they grew older and began to shield their sparks with thick armor. That was why it was harder for adults to form such vulnerable bonds than younglings without completely exposing their life-force. That appealed to a very little number of Cybertronians, and was the reason why trine bonds weren't necessarily required to be made by older Seekers. As long as two within the triad had the bond, a third could tag-a-long with little problems other than being shunned by the other two outside of battle.

But even rarer was the formation of trine bonds to mechs or femmes outside of the Seeker community. It didn't happen very often, but it was not completely unheard of for orphaned Seekers to bond to a groundpounder or, even more likely, a Praxian since the two builds were slightly related to one another. Orphans (or any other Seeker for that matter) _could _go their entire lives without bonding, but there was an ancient, almost undeniable, coding that went along with Seeker sparks that made them feel more complete in a trio. Starscream was just one of the few whose ego and paranoia had been able to fight that coding and avoid being weighed down by the dead weight that went along with any kind of bond.

In a situation like this, the coding would have likely been stronger. Pit, anyone who had to be in the daily presence of Shockwave would have wanted the type of comfort a trine or sibling bond could provide. Separating the three now would be like a death sentence since the separation would cause far too much stress to their tiny sparks, and Starscream was not about to bond to the Seekerlet even it was to keep it alive.

With an annoyed sigh, the Seeker trudged over to the tubes and pulled the squirming one out first. "You better be grateful that your survival is imperative to my success or else you would be dead." The sparkling looked up at him with an innocent smile, blue optics lighting up as it squirmed around with its slippery body and caused Starscream to screech when it almost fell out of his grasp. "Be still you little bratling! I can still squish you under my pede if need be."

The sparkling was already moving on to better things than listening to the new big mech screech. He giggled as Starscream placed him in the crook of the arm that held the Seekerlet and moved around to pat and poke the older sparkling he had seen when he turned on his optics for the first time. The Seekerlet growled and tried to squirm away, but Starscream had it in a tight hold so it was subjected to the other sparkling's eager curiosity. The third sparkling joined the duo, and it could only sigh as the bright and curious sparkling turned to it.

Starscream looked down at the three hatchlings he had just acquired as a new challenge came to his attention. He couldn't transport the three little beings with him since his Cybertronic alt-mode had no place for another to reside in, and he didn't want to resort to the _human_ alt-mode he had acquired just yet. It was so much more restrictive than the former. Besides, there was no way he would even _let_ the squirming Autobot spawn inside him.

The computer pinged as it completed copying the data, and Starscream retrieved the memory stick it ejected as a new plan began to form. When he had first docked in the ship, he had noticed almost a dozen pods in the hanger waiting to be used. Surely one of them would provide adequate space for three tiny occupants. All Starscream had to do was provide it the coordinates and he could pick the hatchlings up once they had landed on the dirtball called a planet. He could keep them there until he had convinced The Fallen to allow him the _Nemesis' _resources to begin the project of creating a new Decepticon army. Not that he needed the old hack's permission; it was just less nagging and annoyance if he approached it that way.

Plan decided, he exited the lab with the three sparklings, sending a quick message to Thundercracker in the process and hurrying towards the hanger before Shockwave caught wind of his success.

**)(**

"-and in conclusion, he's far more valuable alive than dead. The parts his corpse would provide are mediocre at best, and he is the only one with even a minimum success rate at using the warp generator. All others have managed to distort themselves in the process or die because they transported their body but not their spark. Skywarp has also provided you excellent real life data on mechs who are only capable of using half of their processor as opposed to the many who use the whole processor in some shape of form."

**~Hey!~**

**~Do you want him to let you go or yell at me for calling you stupid?~**

Skywarp outwardly shuddered as he felt the tips of sharp claws slowly slid down his right wing. He had never realized before how much of a _creeper_ Shockwave was. The scientist hadn't stopped touching him the moment he had been caught after blowing up a drone and in the process creating a hole in the side of the ship that sucked out a handful of passing drones before someone had been able to provide a temporary patch. Now Shockwave's ship had to dock at the nearest base to be repaired, and Shockwave was not very pleased by that.

Right now the captain of the ship was tapping against his wing in a staccato beat. "I am extremely surprised by the logical and well planned argument you provide me Thundercracker. It gives me the impression that you have been waiting for a long time to use it." Thundercracker did the funny "throat clearing" thing that they had learned of while on Earth and his wings moved up and down in an uncomfortable manner. "And while I do find many faults within it, surprise is something that only three others before you have ever been able to evoke from me. Consider your companion's life a reward."

"Thank you Shockwave," Thundercracker answered as he stiffly bowed his helm, not taking his optics off of the other Decepticon as he did so. He wouldn't until Skywarp had been fully released.

"Oh don't thank me," Shockwave replied as he stroked the black and purple Seeker's wing one more time before abruptly shoving him towards the teal mech. "I still have not lost interest in the special piece of technology your Neanderthal colleague has found himself in possession of."

"What is with everyone calling me an idiot today?" Skywarp finally snarled as he moved to stand slightly behind his bigger Seeker kin. "Even the drone that I blew up did it!"

Thundercracker shook his head, simply grateful that he had managed to convince Shockwave to release his brother. He had been afraid for a moment there that Skywarp's life was about to come to an end, and he knew that despite the way he was acting now, Skywarp had had that fear as well. Mechs who ticked Shockwave off rarely escaped his wrath. "We will simply be returning to Starscream now."

"That reminds me," the scientist started as if on an afterthought as he turned to the computer behind him. "What has our _esteemed_ second-in-command been looking for during our little chat?"

The Seekers glanced at each other for a brief klik before Skywarp shrugged and Thundercracker replied, "I can honestly answer that I have no idea."

"Really?" Shockwave muttered unconvinced as he quickly analyzed the data on the screen. "How odd that the drone stationed near my quarters has offlined."

More exchanges were traded between the Seekers as Shockwave turned back to them. "While I do not often agree with others of average intelligence, I will reiterate Thundercracker's previous observation. You are both more valuable to me alive than dead. I have seen the way you both…dislike towards your current trine leader, so I have a proposal. Stop this folly act of loyalty to a mech you clearly despise and I will allow you two to become the first lieutenants of my future followers."

Shockwave began to precisely pace in front of the shocked mechs. "Megatron's lack of communication has made it clear that he may no longer be with us, and a new leader must rise to command the Decepticons. As official second-in-command, Starscream is directly in line to procure that position and Soundwave has no desire for leadership and would rather search for Megatron until he rusts. While it is not impossible to simply offline him now, Starscream has not inherited his position and kept it because he is weak. And as we all know, Decepticons do not just follow just anyone."

"Then what do you need us for?" Skywarp questioned even as Thundercracker sent him a glare that had "Shut up!" written all over it.

"I am not the most…popular Decepticon," the black mech answered as he finally stopped his pacing to face them. "But I have observed your interactions with others. While some of the dislike you have acquired is based purely on your design, you still find ways to somehow make them 'like' you. Your personalities, especially yours Skywarp, seem to attract the other 'Cons."

"And you want us to sweet talk others to follow you?" Thundercracker asked in disbelief. "You should really get out more often. We are not the mechs you should be coming to with this type of proposal…not that we've decided not to take it or anything."

"That's the thing. The other half of the Decepticons' dislike comes from the fact that you are _Starscream's trine."_

"And by agreeing to this, we're severing all ties to him," the bigger Seeker was finally able to conclude. He had to admit, Shockwave had thought this through long enough if he wasn't just giving up on it. He really wanted the two Seekers on his side, and Thundercracker found that slightly odd. Shockwave, while not flat out saying it, had found ways to express his dislike of Seekers in some shape or form. Why was he so determined to make two of them his "future lieutinents?"

**~Let's do it,~ **Skywarp spoke with little hesitation, and Thundercracker instinctively turned towards him, ignoring the rapt attention Shockwave suddenly had towards them. **~I'm getting tired of having to pretend to like that fragger. The sooner he's offline, the better.~**

**~And you'd rather work for Shockwave?~ **Thundercracker countered. **~One, he's basically giving up on Megatron, who will not be happy if he ever catches wind of it, and he **_**will **_**because if there's one thing I've learned working under two different Megatrons, it's that he isn't going to just die while Prime is still alive; two, if we agree to this there may be no way to back out later. He'll either kill us or turn us into something similar to his drones, and if Megatron is found before word gets out about Shockwave's attempted takeover, he won't hesitate to give us up to Megatron as traitors in order to save his own skidplate. Three, we make an enemy out of Soundwave by doing this. He's still steadfastly loyal to Megatron and anyone who attempts to take his place will probably be seen as a traitor. Four-~**

**~How many points you got? 'Cause I'm getting bored.~**

**~Shut up! This is serious and you're treating it like a joke.~ **The older Seeker instinctively reached out to whack the younger one across the helm as a reprimand. **~I've only got four, and this is the most important one. So four—Shockwave's a creeper.~**

**~I agree. But you seriously think he's gonna let us walk away now? He just revealed that he's all for taking over the Decepticons and offlining Starscream (and possibly Soundwave if he gets in the way) to do it. I wouldn't let anyone walk away with that kind of information.~**

Thundercracker frowned thoughtfully as Skywarp provided a good point. He glanced over to see Shockwave staring at them with immense scientific curiously lighting his optic. That was the last thing any mech wanted to see aim towards him. **~Alright, but you listen to me. If stuff gets dicey, we're out. That includes him starting a coup against Soundwave (who is probably the only 'Con who would even stand a chance against him). If he starts to get creepy towards you again, we leave. And if Megatron is found, we drop Shockwave and go straight back him.~**

**~What if we find our Starscream again?~**

The older mech visibly flinched at the question. **~Skywarp…I've gotta tell you something.~**

**~If it's emotional or degrading, I've heard enough of it today.~**

**~No it's-~**

_:Thundercracker, this is Starscream. Respond immediately.:_

Thundercracker cut off the connection to Skywarp and looked towards Shockwave, who seemed to be able to figure that the Seeker was now speaking to another. He subconsciously frowned at that. Shockwave couldn't possible know the difference between communicating through a trine bond and using the comm. link. _:What is it Starscream?:_

_:It appears I am needed back on the dirtball,: _Starscream answered in a slightly rushed tone. _:I will be leaving immediately.:_

_:You're not going to inform Shockwave? That's not very-:_

_:I don't have time for a lesson on manners!: _Starscream snapped angrily. _:The less I see of that mono-optic fragger the better. Remain here until further instructions. Starscream ou-:_

_:You're not even going to ask if Skywarp is okay?:_

There was a stunned pause from the other end of the comm. link. Thundercracker had never so pointedly and rudely cut him off, and he had done it to the SIC _twice_ in one day now. _:…Starscream out.:_

The link was closed, and Thundercracker turned back to Shockwave and said with no hesitation. "We're in." He ignored Skywarp's shock that was both visible and rolling across the bond in waves. Skywarp had been right earlier; Thundercracker was tired of pretending to like the guy that obviously held no personal feelings towards them whatsoever. He didn't even exhibit the care that an Air Commander should when one of his units may be in danger. "That was Starscream informing me that he was leaving now. He seemed in a big hurry to get out."

Shockwave nodded and turned back to the computer without a word. As he was quickly taping away at the keyboard, pulling up surveillance and a map of the ship, Skywarp sidled closer to Thundercracker. **~TC…~**

**~Just remember what I said. Anything dicey and we get out.~**

Skywarp nodded and didn't attempt to investigate farther. Thundercracker wasn't in the mood to talk or to deal with Skywarp's prying. He just felt like an immense weight had been lifted off his chest. No longer was he required to follow orders under that horrible replica of their Starscream; no longer did he have to hold civil conversations with the Seeker while inwardly cursing his existence; no longer did he- **~Skywarp! What are you **_**doing?~**_

**~Me? I thought that was you!~**

Thundercracker could feel his brother's honest confusion through the bond and that the sudden flux of panic wasn't coming from him at all. But if that wasn't Skywarp then… **~St– Starscream?~**

There was no verbal response as more panic reached them before it suddenly vanished again, retreating back to the end of the bond that had been closed for so long and ignored by Thundercracker in an attempt to stay sane. The Seekers looked at each other with a panic of their own. Where had that suddenly come from? Why hadn't Starscream responded to Thundercracker, confirmed his presence in the bond? What had their brother in such a panic that he would even let the emotion be felt by them?

**~TC…~**

Shockwave pounded on the computer console as he turned to the Seekers. He briefly noted their sudden off-putting expressions but ignored them as he hurried past. "Your _former_ commander has taken off with important data of my own, and now we must retrieve it. Stop gaping at each other and prepare for departure to the planet he has escaped to."

The Seekers followed a brief moment later, still in shock over what they had just experienced. But even as they followed and later zoomed off into space as Shockwave's former ship exploded behind them as the scientist would never leave it for another to take over, Skywarp's final question to Thundercracker continued to echo in his head.

"_TC…did we just agree to kill our brother?"_

**)(**

He didn't like it. Not one bit. The space was too small—he was suffocating! Being crushed by the walls around him…

That mech – the one that had taken him from the tube and shoved him into _this_ – he was worse than the one-optic monster! He hadn't like that mech the moment he had seen him, even if he had made him feel good for a little while. And calling himself Starscream…that didn't sound right. The nice mechs he was able to see when things got really bad called him that.

That was supposed to be _his_ name!

Why couldn't it have been the nice mechs to find him? There was a blue one that was always so soft-spoken yet serious and then the black and purple one that always fooled around in such a way that made him feel both angry and amused. He didn't understand. It should have been them and not the ugly face that always spat when he talked.

He felt his spark flux within his tiny chest as he tried to do that thing again. The thing where he thought he could feel another—be able to find the comfort he needed, _wanted._ There was always something preventing him from accomplishing that when he was awake. But he wanted it! He had felt it once; it was the first thing he could remember. Even as he was battling the monster for the first time, it had been a feeling that made his tiny spark flutter and feel good…before he was dunked into that terrible stuff and forced back to sleep. After that, anytime he was awake he tried to find that happy flutter to distract him from the pain, but he could never find it again.

And now he was all alone in the dark. He began to click in distress and his little systems heaved and stuttered. All alone in the dark, with nobody there to save from being squished…

A chirp came from behind, and he struggled to turn but it hurt his back to lie on it, so he gave up. But the chirps and twitters continued even after he had stopped trying until finally a tiny servo landed on his side. The chirping became reassuring whistles as the other tiny form occupying the space curled up behind him, a tiny olfactory ridge nudging the space between his wing nubs.

It wasn't the same, he concluded as he offlined his optics. The annoying little mechling with the odd colored optics that didn't match the bigger mechs wasn't the comfort he had been searching for, but it helped a little. The space didn't feel like it was going to crush him now that the other body was there to keep him grounded. Maybe if he turned off, he could be out sooner. It always made the monster appear faster; why couldn't it work for this too?

Maybe when he woke up next time, the nice mechs will finally be there to take him away from all of this…and give him a better name that wasn't like the ugly face!

* * *

**AN: **So now you know what's up with the Seekers. Skywarp and Thundercracker are the same as in _Pint Sized_; Starscream is not. He's the movie-'Screamer and doesn't care about them, which leads to the fractured bond that had Shockwave interested in making the best trine for his use. And apparently from the way I read on the tfwiki, movie-Starscream wasn't a scientist (Thundercracker's a drone, and _Skywarp's_ supposed to be the scientist...yeah, I didn't get that either :|). Mmm, yeah some of the original stuff I had planned got changed a little when I realized some of you thought the Seekerlet from the prologue was Skywarp. _She _was originally supposed to be an OC, along with the other two sparklings, instead of who it obviously is now. But it all come out good! I think I like the way this is going more than what my original plans were anyways :)

Leave me some feedback on Shockwave 'cause I can't help but feel that I butchered the guy's character without meaning to. It's probably just because this is only the second time I've written him, but still. Any feedback about anything will help me in the future :D


	5. Birthday Surprises

**AN:** Well, finals are officially over for me :) Now I can focus on this story instead of schoolwork! Also, I seemed to have confused some people on the last chapter, and I tried to answer all the reviewers who were confused (I ended up confusing one even more...that makes me such a _great_ writer). I'm happy you guys expressed your confusion though because it _did_ give me a chance to clear some things up and showed me what I would need to explain further in later chapters.

However, I do want to reiterate that while this is set in the movie-verse, the part of the story that actually takes place during the movie won't be until towards the end. I got some plans with these little sparklings before that happens. I'm also fudging some facts a little from the movie-universe, but I guess that's what makes it AU :P

Small warning for strong language used :)

Time Units  
Decivorn: 8.3 years  
Deca-cycle: ~3 weeks  
Vorn: 83 years

_"Thinking"  
:Com Talk:  
_**~Bond Speech~**

* * *

A New Version of Reality

Chapter Three

Birthday Surprises

**Life's under no obligation to give us what we expect. ― Margaret Mitchell**

* * *

_Prowl was by far the most logical Autobot to date. There were others out there that came close to his level of logic of course, but most Autobots acknowledged his position. It was hard to challenge it when it was common knowledge that he mech possessed a powerful Battle Computer that enabled him to plan nearly ten steps ahead of the enemy._

_That is why it was hard to believe that the only one out there that could best him was a _beast._ (Other than Jazz, who was like magical or something. He's always able to outsmart Prowl by doing the last thing the SIC would think he would do. Of course, that's also why he's only third-in-command; Jazz isn't always so "nice" when it came to accomplishing some of his goals.)_

_But seeing as the "beast" never really did the most logical things, that wasn't very hard to imagine that it could outsmart the mech every once and a while. Like right now. Who would attack the SIC right out in the open where the most paranoid Security Director, the infamous wrench throwing Chief Medical Officer, a bulky Weapons Specialist who possessed had a major trigger finger, and _Optimus Prime,_ overall leader of the Autobots, could see?_

_This little beasty would._

_A cry of surprise and outrage suddenly rang throughout the small compound, attracting the attention of the other mechs going about their daily business. Instead of helping the black and white mech who was now face first on the ground, the previously mentioned Weapons Specialist let out a loud guffaw as the CMO shook his head in exasperation and the Prime released a barely audible chuckle. The loud speaker crackled to life and an annoyed voice said, "Ironhide, I told you to lock that thing up when you weren't around! It's knocked down the camera in corridor B again and don't get me started on what it did in the rec room!"_

"_Aw, he's just havin' a lil' fun with ya Red Alert," Ironhide answered the voice, knowing that he would be heard, and continued to watch the overgrown mechanical feline snuggle into the door-wings on the shoulders of the SIC. "It aint often that he gets to see ya nowadays. He's just tryin' to make up for the time he missed with Prowl."_

"_I do not _care_. Get this thing off of me." Dark blue optics suddenly focused on the person watching them off from the side. "You two stop snickering and get over here. Don't give me that look Jazz. You and Sunstreaker need something to keep you busy more than any other mech on the base."_

**)(**

Victoria jolted up as the house shuddered and something downstairs fell with a loud bang. She groaned and rolled over to put her head under the pillow, tangling herself further into the comforter. It was just Wheeljack handling something unstable—nothing out of the ordinary.

But even as she attempted to fall asleep again, she knew she wouldn't fall into a deep enough sleep to reconnect with Sideswipe so strongly again. It was a very uncommon thing to happen to begin with, and Sideswipe never wasted a chance to fully utilize the bond between them during those rare times. Victoria sill couldn't communicate unless it was through emotions, but experimenting on Sideswipe's end had led to the discovery of something just as good.

At certain times when Victoria managed to fall into a deep enough sleep that went undisturbed for hours, Sideswipe was somehow able to manage a stronger connection and was able to relate memories or video clips sent by his brother, who was currently stationed at another Autobot base with Prowl and Red Alert while Sideswipe was helping another group of Autobots, while adding a bit of commentary on the side (like Jazz being magical. That was a totally Sideswipe thing to add). The memories would play out like a movie while Victoria slept, but normally it was only the last one that really stuck with her. Either way, Victoria was still grateful for them because it allowed the small bond between her and Sideswipe (and indirectly Sunstreaker) to grow, and she was finally able to see what was going on with the others.

Now Sideswipe's end of the bond was retreating, as distance made it slightly more difficult to maintain contact when conscious, but not without a final goodbye and lasting image of the new Nuisance pouncing on Prowl. Victoria subconsciously smiled as she stretched and got up to prepare for the day.

For two years now Victoria, Bluestreak and Wheeljack had been living in a moderately isolated area with the closest major town being almost an entire hour away. There little house was the perfect place for them to live because it was a mile off the main road and surrounded by just enough foliage to make it difficult to see. On top of that, the road was sparsely used thanks to the brand new highway that had been built a couple of years ago, and Wheeljack and Bluestreak were able to walk around in their root modes instead of constantly hiding in their alt-modes.

But that wasn't always the best thing as Victoria had discovered the first few weeks of their move and was reminded of every so often. Like today as she walked down the stairs after getting dressed and out the front door. She leaned over the railing of the porch to look at the old barn that had come along with the property and was positioned off to the side of the main house. Wheeljack, what did I say about explosions before noon?"

The helm of the nutty scientist peeked out of the barn, facial fins flashing a sunny, unashamed yellow as he spoke. "That they're more effective than the alarm clock that I eventually took apart."

"And?"

"…and you'd shove a potato up my tailpipe if I did them on any day of the week that ended in 'day.' But that's not fair because every day ends in 'day.'"

"You agreed to it."

"I didn't realize it at the time! I thought I was actually getting a good deal. Besides, it's almost twelve, so I shouldn't be punished for not being able to control myself for another half hour. That's just plain torture."

Victoria shook her head as Wheeljack ducked back into the barn, the sounds of metal clunking together as he went about his business. The human knew she couldn't stop Wheeljack from doing as he pleased; not even being arrested once had stopped him (the police had let him go after he had somehow made a hole in the side of the police station. Needless to say, they had left him alone after that since it had taken a sizable amount of money from the city and an irate call from the mayor to repair the broken wall). It was just fun to give him a hard time every once in a while, which he responded to in good humor.

The young woman retreated back into the house and stepped into the kitchen. As she went about making her breakfast, she opened the window above the sink and said, "Morning Blue."

While she began to mix the ingredients for pancakes, she could hear the tale-tell sounds of a transformation and the next time she looked over at the window a pair of light blue optics was looking in at her. "Good morning! Or afternoon since it's about that time. But you were sleeping so well I thought I'd leave you alone. Wheeljack wake you up? I'd have thought you'd be used to it by now since he does it every day and—ooh! Are those chocolate chips? You're making chocolate chip pancakes today?"

Victoria chuckled at his eagerness and didn't flinch at all as a blond, teenage boy suddenly appeared beside her, eagerly awaiting his first task. Even after over a decade of living like a human, Bluestreak was still obsessed over food. Sweet stuff was the main thing that kept his attention, but he would often rope Victoria into trying new things with him like frog legs and some weird dish that she still wasn't even sure was edible. But Victoria had told him that since food wasn't essentially required, if he wanted it, he had to buy it himself or somehow contribute to the making of it because she wasn't going to be making three course meals for an alien robot for the rest of her life.

So Victoria now handed over the bowl of dry ingredients for him to finish mixing with the wet ones and started preparing the skillet because the stove and Bluestreak were not a very happy pairing at the moment. Bluestreak still resented the appliance after it had burned him right after Wheeljack had recalibrated the sensors in the holoforms, making them highly sensitive and impossible to turn off at the time. Even now he was glaring at the slowly heating burner. "Don't have another holo-aneurism."

Bluestreak stuck his tongue out at her, accidentally knocking some of the mix out of the bowl and onto his arm. "That was a glitch that Wheeljack made when he was altering the generator so we could finally taste stuff."

"If you say so," Victoria said teasingly as she gestured for him to pour the first pancake. He crept up and did so quickly before backing up with a glare as the butter in the pan popped. "Where did you take off to last night? I noticed before I went to bed that you weren't here."

"Last night?" Bluestreak repeated as he focused on mixing the batter a little more. "I was, uh…just went for a midnight drive. It's very peaceful after twelve."

He shuffled as Victoria stared at him and gave her a goofy grin that had her shaking her head. "Fine, if you don't wanna tell me then I won't force you. Sideswipe took advantage of the bond last night, and I was finally able to see Nuisance for the first time."

"Was he 'playing' with Prowl?"

"And everyone else was standing around laughing at them except the usual, can't-take-a-joke mechs."

Bluestreak snickered while watching his friend flip the pancake over and finish it before moving on to the next. "There's just something about Prowl that seems to appeal to Nuisance. I don't understand why because Prowl hates him, and it's not just the door-wings because as hard I tried, Nuisance never wanted to play with mine or Smokescreen's or Bumblebee's. Prowl was the only he wanted to play with, which is funny because he was the _last_ person who actually wanted your cat's attention. Huh, now that I think about it that might have been why Nuisance was so attracted to him."

"His name's got a meaning behind it after all," Victoria agreed while flipping the last pancake. "That reminds me, why does my former kitten have a _huge gun_ mounted onto his hips."

"Uh," Bluestreak stuttered for a moment as he abandoned the now empty bowl to pull a syrup bottle out of the refrigerator and drown his pancakes in the sticky, amber goo. "You gotta remember the mech who's been taking care of Nuisance is _Ironhide_ and when the war started his weird spark needed to be transferred to something more appropriate than a tiny cyber-cat that could have been squished by a herd of mech in a hurry."

"Spark?" Victoria asked, looking both confused and reprimandingly as the mech wasted almost half a bottle of syrup. "How did he get a spark?"

"Why are you bonded to me and the Twins? It's just one of the mysteries that happened with the transfer, and it wasn't until Ironhide was convincing Ratchet to put Nuisance in a frame similar to Ravage's (which Ratchet was totally against to begin with because he wasn't a mech who dealt with animals) that anyone actually found out about the spark. That's why it's weird; 'animals' from Cybertron aren't sentient and don't have a spark. They can only be transferred through a hardwire download, and that was pretty rare since no one really thought of having their pets transferred to another body when they expired. Ravage and Laserbeak only have sparks because they're Cassettes, which is completely different from animals. How it happened is, like I said before, as big of a mystery as what happened to you, and you might have actually gotten a spark too if you had ended up on Cybertron instead of Earth."

Victoria sighed as Bluestreak's explanation came to an end, and he began to shove pancake soup into his mouth. "Of course, the cat gets to have the interesting things happened to him. Me? I have to go through puberty again, deal with four bonds I have no idea how to work, and still keep you guys' identities a secret, which Wheeljack makes fairly hard because everyone within a ten mile radius knows his name and subsequently knows ours."

"We make your life more exciting and you enjoy it!" Bluestreak protested playfully before growing serious. "What do you mean four bonds? You've never said anything about a bond other than the ones you have with me and the Twins and the one that broke off before coming here, which doesn't count because it's not there anymore."

Victoria didn't get a chance to answer as Wheeljack's face suddenly appeared in the window. "Are you still here? You better get going before you lose the only source of income that you seem to obsess over having."

The human checked the clock that hung on the wall beside the refrigerator. "Shoot, you're right! We better get going Blue."

"Uh," Victoria turned around to see Bluestreak still sitting in the chair. "I can't because…I…blew a tire out last night…while joyriding…at midnight…in the dark."

"Why didn't you tell me that earlier?" Victoria asked accusingly as she placed her hands on her hips. Bluestreak didn't like that pose; it was one she had adopted from her mom years ago that signified she meant business…and she knew he was lying but would play along until he chose to tell the truth, and if he didn't his guilt would later eat him away until he came clean. "And why haven't you fixed him Wheeljack? Wouldn't that be more important than blowing the barn up?"

"He doesn't like the doctor," Wheeljack answered in stride and completely unaffected by her "tell-me-the-truth-or-subconsciously-suffer-later" pose. He was too used to lying to get out of medical examinations and explain away failed endeavors to be affected by the little human. "And nothing is more important than making things explode. You wound me as your magnificent teacher if you haven't learned that yet, my little human pupil."

Victoria glanced between the two—Wheeljack with a bright blue "fin grin" and Bluestreak with both visible and emotional signs of guilt—and shook her head. "You two are up to something."

"Of course we're _not,"_ Wheeljack assured as his face vanished when he stood up. "What would make you think that?"

"Other than Bluestreak suddenly getting a flat after no problems for nearly twenty years and isn't hiding his guilt through the bond very well? You trying to act innocent, which really doesn't suit you 'Jackie. At all."

They could hear a faint "You wound me!" as Wheeljack walked back to the other side of the house where his barn was. Bluestreak still wouldn't look her in the eye as she speedily cleaned the dishes they had used. When that was done and the kitchen still remained silent, Victoria sighed. "Stop acting so pathetic Blue. You can keep your secrets without feeling guilty."

"It's not a bad secret," Bluestreak insisted. "We just can't tell you…yet."

"Well unless it's something dealing with the Decepticons or you guys being in trouble, I don't care." She stopped halfway out the room to glance back at him. "That's not what the secret is, is it? Because then I _would_ be mad."

"No! No Decepticons or other trouble. Just a harmless secret."

The brunette nodded and left the room to grab her shoes and messenger bag sitting by the front door. "I don't know how long it will take me without you then. I've got six deliveries already lined up and there's no telling what Jackson will add to that. Plus I have to take Smokey."

Bluestreak snickered at the name of the old clunker Victoria and Wheeljack had fixed up for the human to use in case of this type of situation, when neither he nor Wheeljack were available. Even after months of fixing it, replacing parts, and Wheeljack adding odd doohickeys to make the old station wagon "better," it still smoked every time it was started up and continued to emit visible exhaust as it was driven. Wheeljack had joked that the car was a replacement for Smokescreen, who stayed with Eric even after they had moved out here, and thus it had been dubbed "Smokey." Nobody had told Smokescreen he had been replaced yet.

"I'm sure it won't be that bad," Bluestreak said as he walked Victoria out to the car still in his holoform. Victoria waved to Wheeljack as he milled around the "junk pile" by barn, which he constantly insisted were "extra parts that would come in handy later." He returned it in a jaunty manner and returned to looking "innocent" by the pile of junk. "Maybe you'll get to see Ms. Kim. She always makes the _best _sugar cookies. And apple pie…and cherry cobbler."

Victoria laughed as she swung the creaky door open and tossed her bag into the passenger's seat of the car. "I'm sure she'll let me bring back a piece of whatever she baked today _if_ I go by her place." Bluestreak smiled happily, almost all of his guilt from earlier vanishing. "Now keep an eye on Wheeljack while I'm gone. Don't let him burn the house or barn down. And don't forget to purge the pancakes before you turn the holoform off. You remember what happened last time."

The mech grimaced at the reminder. A lot of pain was associated with that memory. "Yeah, yeah, I remember. You be careful and call if you get into trouble or just wanna talk. It's never fun to just get calls if you're in trouble. And I always have something to talk about, and I think that's what makes us such great friends. I'm good at talking and you're good at listening. We make the best pair!"

Victoria smiled at him and reached up to give him a quick good-bye peck on the cheek. Warmth flooded their bond, and Bluestreak's smile widened as he waved at her after she had fully entered the car. She waved back and started the station wagon, which shuddered to a start and released a puff of exhaust before idling down the dirt driveway.

Bluestreak watched the car until it had vanished down the main road and the exhaust had dissipated into the air. He sighed and rubbed his belly as the holofrom began the first stages of rejecting the organic food it had been forced to ingest. Oh well, it was yummy while it lasted.

Wheeljack joined him as he walked over to his real form, which was parked off to the side under the awning that Victoria had insisted on being made for them since Wheeljack's barn wasn't always the safest place to power down. It kept them out of the rain and most other elements, which Bluestreak was grateful for. He sometimes didn't like the weather on Earth, but at least the rain was harmless.

"She gone?"

"Yeah. I don't know when she'll be back though. She said she didn't know how many deliveries she would have. Do you think this is a good idea? I mean, she didn't like the one her brother and mom did when she turned ten."

"It's only us! She didn't like the one they did because her stalker was invited. Now get to it; a party won't throw itself!"

"_Thank Primus we don't have the Twins high-grade," _Bluestreak thought as the scientist transformed and his holoform popped out with a couple of plastic grocery bags and ran into the house. He could have sworn he heard the scientist giggling madly. _"Wheeljack's already loopy enough."_

He moved to grab the things hidden in his own trunk when he suddenly bent in half to purge the food he had just consumed. Eh, better now than later. Later was usually much worse.

**)(**

Victoria still couldn't decide whether the path for the life she had chosen was easier or more difficult than the first one she had taken. There was no denying that skipping college made her life slightly less stressful, but it didn't give her as many options in the real world. She _could_ have just relied on Wheeljack to provide the money because he had found less…illegal ways to make money by investing in stocks and things like that. He was fairly good at predicting which ones would do well and which wouldn't and racked up enough cash for them to live comfortably for a few years easy.

But she just couldn't sit on the sidelines and allow the engineer to take care of her for the rest of her life. Victoria was still an independent person, so after the move she began to look something that allowed her to keep that feeling of independence. It hadn't exactly come in the form she had been looking for though.

How it started wasn't even because of Victoria. _Bluestreak_ had been the one to find it. They had been in the nearest town—a small place almost thirty minutes away that had barely anything—at the post office picking up the new care-package that Terrence and Ariel now sent on nearly a monthly basis when they met a woman by the name of Ms. Kim. She was a sweet old lady who had lost her husband to an illness almost five years ago and now lived on her own in a place similar to theirs. Bluestreak had found this out after happily striking up a conversation with her while waiting for Victoria to get her package and also learned that it tended to be a hassle for her to come into town every day for her mail since for some odd reason the post office refused to deliver out to her house. So Bluestreak had just as happily suggested that he and Victoria could deliver her mail for her, to which Ms. Kim had agreed to (but only after Bluestreak _insisted)_ and Victoria felt like hitting him.

In fact, she _had_ slapped him across the back of the head for not consulting her first. She hadn't wanted to be a deliveryman or woman as was her case.

But Bluestreak had given his word, and he wouldn't have been an Autobot if he just backed out without completing what he had agreed to…and he had had an adorable pout that Victoria just couldn't argue with. So one time, Victoria had said when they received the first mail delivery via Mr. Jackson, a grouchy old man who seemed to be the only one working at the post office (maybe that explained why just about everyone was forced to get their mail in person). After that Victoria would get a job at the grocery or something and Bluestreak could do whatever he wanted to during those hours.

She had been slightly swayed when she first met Ms. Kim, who greeted them like they were own her own grandchildren. They had been invited in and the woman had vanished into the house while they waited in the sitting area. Victoria and Bluestreak had engaged in a "silent conversation," sending emotions back and forth like "impatience/aggravation" from Victoria and "patience/sense of accomplishment" from Bluestreak. Victoria was slightly ashamed that her resolve to stay away from the woman had completely dissolved the instant she had walked in with two plates of straight-from-the-oven cherry cobbler with a side of vanilla ice cream as thanks for their help.

They tried to visit at least once a week, sometimes more, even if they had nothing to deliver.

After about a month of that system, Ms. Kim had asked if they would be willing to help a friend of hers, who she had told about them. Bluestreak had once again jumped at the opportunity, agreeing around a mouthful of homemade chocolate chip cookies he had been eating at the time, and that was how their little "business" had taken off. More and more people had been gradually referred to them, mostly ones who lived far from the nearest town and up in age. It wasn't until pretty recently that they began to get paid for their help since Victoria could never bring herself to charge the little old people who were as sweet and kind as they could be. People just started paying them what was thought to be deserved, which was a good bit for some people.

Bluestreak told her that good things come to good people. Victoria told him that was because the people using them started to feel guilty. And Wheeljack said he could have totally invented something for the post office to just teleport mail to the right homes without the need of delivery people, to which Victoria retaliated that the package would have probably ended up in a different dimension and Bluestreak laughed as the engineer had gone off to pout.

That was basically the story of why Victoria and Bluestreak did what they did now. It provided enough cash and sense of independence for Victoria to eventually be fine with it, and it gave Bluestreak the opportunity to socialize with other people every other day. Because as much as he loved Victoria and Wheeljack's constant company, they got "a little boring after a few years," which was one of the reasons why the brunette had been so suspicious of Bluestreak's lie to stay behind with Wheeljack. He didn't like to miss deliveries because that meant missing time to socialize to outside people, and she liked spending time with him without having to worry about Wheeljack suddenly blowing something up or finding ways to make it awkward.

That and he was able to sweet talk Mr. Jackson into being somewhat less of a grouch.

"I don't see why people allow hooligans like you the opportunity to loot through their mail," said grouch was grouching as he searched for the right mail bin that would contain the deliveries for Victoria. Since enough people had been asking the old man to allow Bluestreak and Victoria to deliver their mail, Jackson had gotten into the habit of separating it from the other mail that went out to make it easier to find. Of course that was negated by the fact that after filling the mail bin, he usually got it mixed up with the others anyway. "They should get off their damn asses and get their own shit."

"But then they'd have to interact with your _sunny_ personality," Victoria mumbled to herself as she leaned her elbows against the front counter where she waited for him in the otherwise empty post office. "You make picking up mail such a _joy."_

"What was that you sex-driven teenager?"

"I said, they miss you very much and regret not being able to come due to old age and the things that usually accompany it." She straightened up as the older man found what he was looking for and pushed the wheeled-bin out the door that separated the front part of the building from the back. "And I'm twenty years old today, so you can't call me a teenager anymore."

"You're still sex-driven," he snidely commented as he looked her up and down. Victoria would later admit that a tank top and shorts was probably not the best outfit to show up in, but it was starting to get hot outside and besides walking around in jeans and thick shirts that covered every inch of her body wouldn't have changed his mind anyways. "That's the problem with _your _generation. It's all about drugs, booze, and sex—not all in that order and sometimes even together! What happened to the good ol' days where women actually had some dignity and didn't walk around like ladies of the night? And marriage was actually something special? I was married to my wife for _forty years_, and not once did I stray because I saw a lady with nicer legs or I wanted to forget I had a baby at home. Hooligans—that's what you all are."

Victoria sighed and allowed him to rant as he piled the mail into the back of her station wagon. If Bluestreak had been there, he would have been ordered to help because "men should learn how to properly work so women could take care of the kids without worrying about where their next meal was coming from," but Mr. Jackson always made a point to watch them and make sure they didn't snatch a package or sneak a peek inside an envelope. He was like a human version of Red Alert, only less extreme and OCD about his job and a whole lot grouchier. Now that she thought about it, it was probably mean to compare the Security Director to the old man.

"Well it was nice seeing you again," Victoria lied happily when he was finally done emptying the mail bin into her station wagon. "Maybe I'll see you again later this week."

"That's another thing!" he complained as he shoved the cart back towards the building. "You're all so damn eager to get away from the 'old people' when there's still more to be done. Get back to your own kind and do God knows what with them blueberries and MP3s! This generation is so screwed over by TV and them singers I hear on the radio that make my ears bleed."

The younger woman watched Jackson grouch all the way back into the post office. "Your kids don't call home very often, do they?"

"And now you're thinking you can tell me how to raise my kids, who are older than you by the way!"

Victoria sighed and leaned up against the back of her vehicle. This was the one thing she didn't like about this little arrangement. Not once had she heard Mr. Jackson say _one_ nice thing, not even to Bluestreak (although that was because he was convinced that they were an unmarried couple, and Bluestreak had knocked her up in high school, which was why they were still living with Bluestreak's estranged "dad" in the middle of nowhere and had to resort to delivering mail for a source of income to raise their little Johnny back at home; Bluestreak had gotten offended by that, saying that his first kid's name would have Silver somewhere in his name and not a generic human name). There was always an insult in his words or a derogatory glance on the days he didn't feel like talking. But it was still nothing compared to her previous boss from so long ago, so she was able to brush the insults off without a flinch. Not to say that it wasn't annoying on a number of levels, but what was she gonna do? People like him were just a part of society that she had to deal with.

"-and they got a hell of a lot more sense than kids your age," the man continued to rant as if she had heard him the whole time while walking back out of the building. "So don't even try to bewitch my son with your sexual shenanigans the next time he visits!"

"I still don't think he's real," Victoria said slowly as she stared at the box on the flat cart he was pushing. "Hold on. We've never had to deliver something this big. Packages that size are your responsibility, and everyone we help knows that."

"This is a new guy," he answered with a grin as he crouched down to put the box in the car despite her disapproval. "And he's crazy as hell. Somehow he heard about you and your boy toy, and he called in and all but ordered that _you_ be the one to deliver it." He grunted in effort, his face turning red as he lifted the box into the trunk. "And I aint gonna have that nut come in a shoot me just because you refused to deliver his mail."

"He can't be _that _bad."

Even as he struggled for breath, Mr. Jackson didn't waste the opportunity to laugh at her mockingly. "Not bad? The guy's the definition of wackjob! He moved here about five years ago and went around town scanning everything and everyone with this weird device of his, and when the sheriff told him to stop, he started spouting some nonsense about aliens disguising themselves as everyday stuff like a fire hydrant or the newspaper box over on First. Then he punched the sheriff and served two nights in the county jail for assaulting the officer. Now we only see him once or twice a year when his stockpile runs out, and he always gives people the stink eye and has gotta scan anything he thinks is new to the town."

"So you're going to send me, a defenseless, scrawny young woman, to this 'wackjob's' home just to protect your own ass?"

Mr. Jackson gave her shoulder a strong pat as he walked past her to reenter the small post office a second time. "At least it won't take the authorities long to find your body. 'Sides, he don't like me to begin with on account that I get paid by the government, and I can't say that I feel to differently 'bout him."

Victoria watched him vanish through the door in only slight disbelief. "I really don't like you old man."

**)(**

Bluestreak watched in fascination as cake batter went flying across the room to splatter on the clock hanging on the wall. "Wow, I think you got more air on that one. Huh, so I guess you _did_ fix the mixer in a way."

"Ha ha," Wheeljack replied sarcastically as he wiped a huge globe of half mixed flour, milk, eggs, and other assorted ingredients off of his face. "So it's probably not a good idea to modify the mixer to have a setting higher than 'high.' But you can't knock me for at least trying. Now get back to blowing balloons."

The blond stretched the piece of rubber in his hands before bringing the opening to his mouth and expanding it with air. Once it was a descent size, he tied the end off and hit it over to join the pile of colorful balloons that was slowly forming. "When I get done with this I'm going to go into town and pick up the cake I ordered."

"You and Victoria have such little faith in me! I thought we agreed I could make a homemade cake."

"Yeah," Bluestreak agreed, dragging out the word to indicate the "but" that was about to follow. "But after I thought about it, I figured Vicky would appreciate a non-explosive cake for her unwanted birthday party."

Wheeljack snorted in slight offense while resetting the mixer to its normal level. "Everything I make or fix does not explode." The mixer in his hand suddenly sparked, a small pop sounding along with it. The scientist noticed the younger holoform's mocking expression of surprise. "Hey! It didn't explode; that was just a spark."

"Sparks usually indicate an explosion is soon to follow. It was in the manual Ratchet sent out to all the Autobot recruits after you almost killed Bumblebee in a lab explosion. And Perceptor. And took out half the base and Iacon. Anyway, he thought that everyone else should know how to handle you since Red Alert wasn't around yet, and Optimus, 'Hide, Prowl, and him weren't always going to be around to deal with you. I thought it was very informing even after first finding it decivorns later."

"Ratchet made a manual concerning me? I don't know whether to be flattered or offended." Wheeljack stared at the bowl he had been mixing before throwing it into the sink without a second thought. It had been a long shot anyway. "Although that does explain how Perceptor was suddenly able to put my fires out before they even had a chance to beautifully flourish, and why he knew to avoid the lab every other deca-cycle."

"Everyone knew to do that unless they were just assigned to the base. It was kinda funny to watch the newbies freak out the first time one of your latest inventions went wrong."

"Indeed it was." The engineer took a look at the kitchen before waving it off. "I'll clean it up later. Now where are those streamers?"

Bluestreak watched over top of the yellow balloon he was inflating as Wheeljack went about the living room hanging different colored streamers and ones that proudly announced "Happy Birthday" from the mismatched furniture. He wasn't exactly sure what had suddenly possessed the older mech to covertly plan a surprise party for their human companion, but he ventured to guess that it had something to do with missing the chance last year.

Last year would have been Victoria's first birthday away from home, but that had been forgotten when Bumblebee had shown up out of nowhere, injured and temporarily stuck in his alt-mode. His sudden appearance had surprised them all, and Wheeljack had immediately checked him over before deeming his injuries small enough for his systems to naturally repair on their own. Bumblebee had remained with them for three human days, filling them in on his recent expedition of finding the AllSpark and how close he was too it. He also described the human force that had been attempting to capture him—the same group that attempted to capture the trio of Autobots some years ago—and how Barricade had attacked him in the desert, leading to the injuries he had shown up with.

Of course, most of the details had had to be retold by Bluestreak to Victoria since Bumblebee's voice box had never been completely fixed by Ratchet after the Battle of Tyger Pax, so Bumblebee could only use his comm. link to communicate to him and Wheeljack the whole story, which subsequently left the human out of the loop. Victoria hadn't minded though as she had been amused by the yellow scout's use of human radio as his "voice" and found it much more cleverly executed than how she vaguely remembered it from the one movie they had watched when the Transformers had been trapped as toys. Bumblebee had been likewise curious about the human female, since she was the only human he had been able to see up close and interact with without being attacked. So by the time Bumblebee had healed enough to continue his journey (and it wasn't too soon either as the scout had picked up on an AllSpark signal), both he and the human were fairly acquainted and it was actually a slight disappointment to see him leave, making a promise to Wheeljack to keep them informed.

Bluestreak had been tempted to tell Bumblebee to look for the human named Sam Witwicky, since that human had appeared to be close to the scout in the movie they had watched, but Wheeljack and Victoria had agreed that it would probably be best not to manipulate anything they didn't have to. Bumblebee would eventually find Sam, and who was to say that finding the boy too soon would cause a severe dilemma? He could accidentally lead a Decepticon to the human, and Sam could be hurt or worse-killed. Too early might mean that Optimus' team wasn't close enough to land and the yellow Autobot wouldn't have the back-up he needed in case something did go down. Besides none of them knew where the Witwicky family lived, just that Sam would later live in Washington D.C., and Wheeljack refused to hack into government files to find out because they could be possibly discovered like Bumblebee had and he had to keep their own human out of danger. Optimus had also specifically ordered Bluestreak and Wheeljack not to use their knowledge of the future unless they absolutely had to. The Prime was very determined to allow what was meant to happen, to happen in the due time it was meant to because one small change could cause everything to fall out of balance and perhaps even make things worse.

So they had seen the scout of without a hint and afterwards waited. There had been a brief period of time where they had been on their guard after that. As nice as it was to see another Autobot after so long, none of them knew whether or not Bumblebee's stay had attracted the attention of other, less welcomed guests. For the next week, everyone had been on pins and needles, either waiting for a sudden squadron of unmarked vehicles to come tearing down the empty road or a lone police Mustang to pay them a visit. Fortunately, neither scenarios had ever happened, but it wasn't until the excitement had died down that Wheeljack had remembered the missed birthday.

Victoria had told them not to worry about it, that turning nineteen for the second time wasn't that big of a deal. Except Wheeljack had taken the missed date personally for some odd reason and told Bluestreak that they would throw a huge party the next time the date came around. It wasn't until a week ago that the engineer brought it up again and roped the younger mech into the party planning. After much thought, Bluestreak had determined the reason for Wheeljack's insistence on a party had to be a parenting thing. After all, he could remember his creators throwing him a party every vorn on his Creation Day, no exceptions, and Victoria's mom (and later dad) had been determined to celebrate their children's day of birth like his creators had. Wheeljack had technically been the parent of the Dinobots, so if he continued with the theory that it was indeed a parenting thing even if Wheeljack hadn't ever been able to throw a big party for his five creations (he tried though, so it counted), then his logic was flawless.

Prowl would have been so proud of his use of logical reasoning skills.

But he was getting off subject and barely noticed the last of the balloons being blown up until he was searching for another in an empty bag. With a shrug, Bluestreak tossed the now empty bag in the trash and turned to Wheeljack, who was standing on a kitchen chair in order to hang the Happy Birthday banner in the archway between the kitchen and living room. "I'm outta balloons, so I'm heading into town to get the cake. Victoria should be gone for at least three more hours if she got the regulars again today. Do you need anything while I'm in town?"

"Oh yeah!" the older mech suddenly announced just before Bluestreak had a chance to disable the holoform. "Do humans use this birthday as an excuse to get drunk or the next one? Or did we miss it last year?"

"I think it's the next one, but Victoria doesn't like to drink that stuff. She said she tried it once in college and it was gross."

"So? She's trying to live a different life than her first one. I bet she didn't do the traditional human drinking when she comes of age, so it's our responsibility to get her 'hammered.'" Wheeljack grinned in amusement. "See what I did there? I'm learning how to properly use human lingo!"

"And you're getting _way _to into this," Bluestreak said with a laugh as he left the engineer in the house and proceeded to speed down the driveway. Hopefully he'd be able to get back fast with the cake and finish helping the older mech while at the same time making sure that the decorating wouldn't get out of hand. He knew Victoria best, and she didn't seem to enjoy parties as much as others did.

**)(**

Victoria let out a puff of air as she sat in her car staring at the house she was parked in front of. She seriously just wanted to take the huge package in her trunk back to the post office and make the old man actually do his job. How hard could it be to get into the mail truck and deliver mail? That truck was nearly as old as he was, so he should have felt right at home driving it!

But driving back into town would be more of a waste of gas than just leaving the package in the unkempt yard and moving on to the next home. Then again, she might stay alive by following her gut and moving on. But if she went back to town she'd have to see Mr. Jackson again. That was twice in one day!

…seeing the old man again seemed like the greater of two evils, so Victoria sucked it up and stepped out of the car. At least if she died, she would die knowing that this second short life was ten times better than the first.

The young woman walked up onto the dilapidated porch, stepping over the spots of wood that looked like it would fall in at any moment, and calmly opened the screen door to knock. She waited a moment, and when no answer came, she shrugged and turned to walk back to her car. _"Well, I tried. I'll just get Bluestreak to take the box back to-"_

The door behind her suddenly swung open with a bang, and she swiftly turned to see the end of a gun barrel pointed straight at her. With a yelp, she jumped backwards, her foot getting caught on a piece of wood that had been poorly nailed down, and tumbled backwards the down the steps to land hard on her back. The pain from the fall was completely ignored as she tried to scramble backwards in order to put distance between her and the gun. "What the hell! Do you pull a gun on everyone who shows up at your house? No wonder the old man doesn't want to deliver your mail!"

The gun wavered before pointing steadily back at her. "Who sent you? Banachek? That bastard _Simmons?_ Or do they have a new golden boy working their ranks? You can't fool me!"

"_Oh, this is just _swell," Victoria thought as the only thing filling her vision at the moment was the end of the rifle that was way too close for comfort. _"The _one_ time Bluestreak doesn't come along and I get the crazy to deal with."_

"I don't know what you're talking about," she said, slowly her hands up in a non-threatening manner. The best thing to do at the moment was to stay calm and convince the man at the other end of the gun that she wasn't a threat. Once she had the opportunity, she'd get the hell out of here and call Bluestreak and Wheeljack just in case the wacko decided to try and follow her. "I'm from the post office. You ordered the old man—Mr. Jackson—for me to deliver a package to you."

The rifle wavered again, and she was able to see a small sliver of the man. He didn't look very threatening with his thinning brown hair and thick square glasses. But people always did say that it was unobtrusive ones you had to look out for. "There's supposed to be two of you, one male and one female."

"My partner is…sick today. He wasn't able to come, but I can show you some identification. I'm sure Jackson told you our names or you knew them even before contacting him."

The gun was finally lifted from her face and she was allowed the first full view of her assailant. He was a scrawny looking man, mid-to-late thirties, with thinning brown hair and glasses, just as she had been able to see a moment before. He agitatedly reached into the pocket of his thick red jacket, pulling out a crumbled piece of paper. "Lemme see your license."

Victoria slowly reached into her back pocket and pulled out the old worn leather wallet she had snatched from her brother while he had been packing to leave. The wallet was snatched from her hand and shaky hands flipped it open. The man studied the contents of it for a full minute before shifting his suspicious eyes back to where she still sat on the ground. "Your last name's Anderson? Who's your father?"

She looked at him in confusion. Why did he need to know her father's name? "Terrence. Terrence Anderson."

"Has he ever been to Virginia? Gone on long trips without telling anyone? What does he do?"

"Uh, no. He's lived in Texas his whole life, the farthest trip he's ever taken was to Arkansas with me and the rest of my family to visit relatives, and he works in the construction business—mainly pools."

Blue-green eyes stared at her from behind the glasses, flickering back and forth as if he was anticipating someone jumping out at him, before handing the wallet back. Victoria blinked as the man went from ultra-paranoid to completely civil in one second flat. "You're clean. Sorry for the overreaction, but I was expecting two people, so when I only saw you, I got a little carried away. And Anderson is a fairly common last name. Now where's my package?"

"_In my pocket,"_ Victoria was tempted to say but figured that sarcasm was not appropriate in this situation. The guy obviously wasn't completely right in the head (he had put a gun to her head for no reason other than showing up alone!), and the last thing she wanted was to say something that would make him snap and use the gun he still held in his hand. So she forced a laugh out to join his few chuckles and took the hand he offered to help her up. "It's in the station wagon 'cause it's a little too heavy for me to carry on my own."

"Oh good," the man said, placing what she was now able to identify as a fairly common hunting rifle on the rail of the old porch. "I was worried you'd refuse to make the delivery."

Victoria bit her lip to keep her next comment to herself and ushered him to the back of her vehicle. He stood by and watched critically as she popped the trunk open. "Pretty old vehicle you got here."

"Yeah," she agreed as she busied with grabbing the correct package and sliding it to the edge. "I got it cheap, and my friend's dad helped me fix it up enough to run."

"So it had to go through some pretty decent repair, huh? I could see it smoking from a mile up the road."

Victoria hummed in agreement and couldn't help but watch the man closely. To any other person it would sound like he was just attempting to make some small talk. But she didn't really trust him after the way he had greeted her, and her gut was still telling her to get the hell out of there. Surprisingly, she was now also thinking that she was glad Bluestreak hadn't come with her because she didn't like the way the man was looking at her ordinary station wagon. She could only imagine how he would have reacted to the mech's nicer looking alt-form. "Do you think you can get this or do you need some help?"

"Looks pretty heavy, and if you can't tell, I'm not the strongest guy around." He laughed at his own joke, forcing another laugh from Victoria. "Why don't you grab one end and I'll take the other. Just don't touch anything when we take it inside, and we'll be fine."

The brunette noted the order and threat in his tone and nodded without complaint. The more she cooperated, the faster she could leave, and as long as he didn't have his gun, Victoria figured she stood a pretty good chance against the man if it came down to that. He was about the same weight and height and she still had the little handheld Taser that Wheeljack had made her on a whim. It was supposed to be in case a Decepticon showed up out of the blue, but she was pretty certain that he wouldn't mind it being used in this situation even if the voltage of the device was strong enough to kill an ordinary human in seconds.

So with both of their effort, they were able to carry the box from the trunk to the porch, and once the door propped open for them, the man directed them into a room off to the side of the entrance that was crowded with other things. Victoria didn't pay close attention to the other stuff as she placed the box on the table indicated with a grunt. Okay, the box had been a _little_ heavier than she had originally thought. But the man seemed less threatening now that his package was safely inside. "Well, there you go! Happy to be of service to you, but I got some other people still waiting."

"What about payment?" he asked dubiously as Victoria attempted to back out the room and ultimately the house. "I was under the impression that there would be a fee. Not saying that I'm not willing to pay it or anything."

"No, people sometimes pay us what they thing we deserve, but we don't demand any money for the service. My friend started it out of the goodness of his spa-heart! And it's hard to socialize with others out here, so it's just a thing he likes to do to talk to people." She gave him a flawless smile while on the inside beating herself up. She had almost stupidly slipped up and said "spark" instead of "heart." That was just one of the downfalls of living with a pair of Transformers—you started speaking their language around ordinary people. "Unless you know how to bake. Then my partner would prefer a dozen cookies over money any day."

The man laughed slightly, and Victoria could have fallen over in relief that he wasn't trying to insist on her staying. "I've been on my own for the past twenty years, and it's sad to admit this, but the best I can do is warm up a TV dinner. The life of a bachelor I guess."

"Yeah, life of a bachelor," she agreed happily as she backed out of the room. She was almost out of there… "It was nice meeting-"

Victoria was prevented from finishing her sentence as she accidently bumped into a tower of boxes precariously placed by the entranceway. The tower swayed slightly, and she instinctively reached up to prevent it from collapsing. Despite keeping the other boxes balanced, the top box toppled over and landed heavily on the floor, spilling its contents at her feet. "I am _so_ sorry. I didn't even see it there. Here, I'll help you pick it up-"

"No!" the man snapped and stepped forward, the same frantic flicker lighting his eyes as it had before. "Don't touch _anything."_

Victoria froze halfway bent over to over to pick up the unidentifiable electronics and straightened back up. "Again, I'm sorry. I'll just be going now."

The man glared and stomped over to pick up a small yellow box before she could leave. "Do you know how _expensive_ some of this stuff is and how long it took me to get a hold of? You could have irreversibly damaged it! How do you plan on replacing this?"

Thankfully she was saved from answering as he turned the machine on and it started to click to life. "It looks like it works to me."

But the male appeared to not hear her as he began to wave the box up and down the length of her body in astonishment. Not liking the motions, Victoria took a step back and the sound coming from the yellow box decreased in volume. "Yeah, nothing's broke and I delivered your box, so I'm leaving now."

"Wait!" the man called out frantically as he swiftly followed her out the door. "Where have you been recently? Have you been to Russia lately, specifically places of abnormally high radiation? Does anyone you deliver for act strangely? Do they have odd electronics or cars or something else mechanical? Have you met one of _them?"_

Against her better judgment, Victoria turned around halfway to her car to look back at the strange man who had still stood on his porch. "Met who?"

"_Them," _he repeated insistently. "The aliens from space that have been coming to Earth and hiding amongst us in plain sight for the past century! They can transform into anything they want and-"

"I'm out of here," Victoria cut him off and rushed to her car without a second thought. "And please don't ask for our assistance again because if you do we'll just refuse."

"You know something!" he insisted loudly and ran off the porch to stand next to her window, almost giving her a heart attack when she looked up from the starting the car and noticed him there. "I'm warning you now that they can't be trusted! I've seen the things they can do, the way they kill without remorse. If you know something, tell me now. I can find a way to protect you!"

The car started with a few hiccups, and she shook her head almost pityingly. "I don't need protection, and please talk to a professional before you end up hurting someone."

He remained in the same spot as she pulled away, making no move to indicate he was bothered by the smoke emitting from the station wagon. When the car was about ten feet away, he raised his fist in the air and waved it around as he yelled at her. "I'm not crazy! I know what I say is true, and those Sector 7 bastards can't keep me quiet; the public deserves to know that they are hiding amongst us. They should know how to protect themselves!"

Victoria shook her head and manually rolled her window up, watching in her rearview mirror as the man continued to yell even as the distance between them grew. This was the last time she was making deliveries without Bluestreak.

Because seriously, it was just her luck to get the government conspiracy/alien fanatic the one time she went out without either of the Autobots. But there was a nagging in the back of her head that there had been something the crazy man had said that sounded familiar to her.

**)(**

Of course her "good luck" couldn't end there. It had to make her think everything was going fine before slapping her in the face again. Or overheat her engine in the middle of nowhere just as it was getting dark on her way home. Victoria glared down at the engine after popping the hood of the car open. "You know what? You're turning out to be as bad as the real Smokescreen, minus the gambling addiction and using my brother as some kind of social experiment."

The old vehicle remained silent, causing her to sigh and slam the hood shut again before whipping her cellphone out. As soon as the phone had flipped open, she groaned and flipped it back shut. "And _of course_ I have to live in the one state that seems to have the most bipolar cellphone reception _ever." _A sudden chilled wind swept past her, causing her to shiver and hold herself in an effort to conserve heat. "You want me to add something else to your shit list?"

Victoria huffed as the wind began to pick up, turning what had been a scorching day into the beginnings of a bitter cold night. She sighed and stomped back to the driver's side of the car and climbed in. For a moment she once again attempted to contact Bluestreak or Wheeljack, but without a strong enough signal all of her calls were almost automatically dropped. She stared out of the front window at the slowly darkening landscape before snorting and reaching over to the passenger's seat to snatch up the covered plate sitting there.

"I'll turn this bad situation into a good one," Victoria said confidently, peeling off the aluminum that covered the plate and pulling out a snickerdoodle made especially by Ms. Kim just that afternoon. She took a big bit and chewed reverently. "See universe? You can't bring me down that easily. I've learned a thing or two from Blue and 'Jackie: never give up no matter how many things you blow up and cookies make everything a lot better."

She ate five more cookies during her wait before shoving the plate back into the empty seat. "Well played universe. Giving me a stomachache was brilliant retaliation." She sighed and leaned back into her seat, weaving her fingers through her almost shoulder-length ebony hair. "And now I'm behaving as crazily as that loon from earlier. Talking to yourself is the first sign of insanity."

Victoria attempted to start the car again, but nothing happened, making her slam her head against the top of the steering wheel. Repeatedly. "Okay! I'm sorry for whatever wrong thing I've done in my life to deserve this. Why can't one good thing happen when I'm on my own?"

She looked up and sighed at the first stars brightening the slowly darkening sky. As more and more stars lit up, she couldn't help but suddenly wonder what would have happened had she gone to Cybertron. The damn cat got a cool Transformer body; maybe she could have gotten her own. Wheeljack had shown her pictures of the Autobot femmes, and they were badass. How cool would it have been like one of them instead of a useless human? And she could have met the Dinobots like Swoop had wanted her to do. It would have been interesting to meet them if they acted like their brother did. Maybe she'd still have the opportunity to meet them some day when Swoop finally came to Earth. Maybe she could have seen if Iacon was as amazing as Sunstreaker had painted. There were just so many things she could have done!

But alas none of that was possible now. Cybertron was a war torn planet, and according to Wheeljack, the majority of the population had left to find a better place to live and the few who remained wouldn't stay for long. Cybertron was dead, and if it was ever to be revived again, it wouldn't be during her lifetime.

Victoria sighed and attempted to start the car _again_ with no luck. "Why are you doing this to me? I just wanna go home, and it's starting to get cold and dark, and that has to be the creepiest patch of trees I had to get stranded by," she complained, pointing out said trees that sat to one side of her. "Unless there's something worth waiting for to happen, I'd very much appreciate it if for once that my days didn't end on such a bad note."

Silence greeted her after her monologue, and she sighed before letting her seat back to recline. "Yeah, I didn't think that would work."

If she wasn't going anywhere anytime soon, she might as well make use of the time by taking a nap. Wheeljack and Bluestreak didn't have to "sleep" at the same time she did. Actually, they could go for long periods, like a week or a month, before having to recharge (Wheeljack had once gone three months without recharge, but that was because he had been obsessed with his current project and afterwards had gone offline for a month—one blissful, explosion-free month). So they tended to sometimes wake her up without meaning to, which was why the unbroken sleep she had experienced the night before was so rare. By her guesstimate, a ten minute nap would be more than enough time for the car's engine to cool down especially with the way the temperature was dropping.

Just as Victoria was settling back into the seat, her cellphone started to vibrate from where she had placed it on the dashboard. She jerked back up to grab the phone and was talking even before it was to her ear. "Thank God. I don't know how long the signal will last so lemme just-" She cut off when a burst of static came through the phone, making her jerk it back with a wince. "What the?"

It was then that she happened to look up and gaped outside of the window as she spotted something streaking across the sky. She had seen "shooting stars" (which Wheeljack occasionally pointed out to be government satellites that had just drifted to close to Earth) before and occasionally stayed up long nights with Bluestreak to watch meteor showers since it gave him the familial feel of his home, since meteor storms were a more common event on Cybertron than on Earth.

It was because of those experiences that Victoria scrambled out of the car to watch the object glide through the sky. _Real_ shooting stars burned up in the atmosphere not long after being spotted and there were no known meteor showers for the next month. Bluestreak would have made sure to inform her of them. Plus this one looked like it was actually getting _closer…_in fact, she was almost positive it was…

Victoria couldn't help but curse and instinctively duck as the burning mass of fire sailed through the air above her with a loud sonic boom that made her cover her ears. She felt the ground shake and a muffled noise before uncovering her ears and looking behind her. The trees shielded what had fallen from view, but she could see small flickers of light coming through. Astonishment left the woman gaping at the foliage before ducking back into her car to pull a flashlight from the glove compartment.

Whatever had just crash-landed was definitely not a meteor. The news stations would have been all abuzz with the discovery of a meteor large enough to survive entering the atmosphere. Hell, from what little she had been able to see, newscasters would have been babbling just about the size of it and how the government planned on shooting at it or that it was the sign of the apocalypse or something. They liked to put people in a panic about things like that.

And that was when she remembered something Bumblebee had said nearly a year ago and was propelled into the dense trees. It was rare that Bluestreak, Wheeljack, or Smokescreen could get a strong enough signal out to communicate to other Autobots out in space. They just couldn't risk the chance of being found out by the human government or some other group to soon. And too soon meant before Optimus or Prowl was around to handle the political stuff. But during his stay, Bumblebee had told them that Optimus' group wasn't that far behind him. How long it would take them to reach Earth was something he couldn't answer, but they were supposed to wait for the scout's signal to land. Maybe one of them had gotten impatient? Jazz was supposed to part of that group, and she couldn't imagine him floating in space for an entire year without getting at least a little antsy.

"_And what if it's a Decepticon Victoria?" _she asked herself as brambles scratched up against her bare legs. _"They're looking for the same thing the Autobots are. Some of them are supposed to be on Earth _right now!_ What if they just called for some back up and he landed here?"_

Even with that chance, Victoria continued into the trees, making sure to constantly somehow mark her path back to the car. It was kind of hard when the only thing she had was the stickers that one of her regular's granddaughter had given her earlier that day, but they had something on them that made them sparkle when the light from the flashlight passed over it. If they just stayed on the trees she put them on, then she should have a good chance of getting back to the car if her search ended empty-handed. If not, then hopefully what had landed was a friendly that would guide her back to the road.

Victoria continued to hike into the woods in the direction she thought the thing had landed. She only stopped momentarily when the light began to flicker and smacked it one good time against her palm. "Come on. You can't be about to die because I know I just replaced your batteries!"

The flashlight seemed in the mood to defy her and flickered a few more times before completely going out. Victoria growled and shook the device with all of her might. "Today is just not my day!"

With the flashlight no longer emitting light, the young woman suddenly noticed how dark it had become. By now the sun would have fully set (something she knew even if she couldn't see it because of the trees), and the density of the woods prevented any light from the moon to illuminate the place. This…was not good. Victoria couldn't stand to be in a completely darkened space, not since being trapped in that place between dimensions. It dredged up too many feelings from that time—the suffocating sense of nothing, being utterly alone, the intense pain she had experienced before finding a way out, the suffocating sense of nothing. It was something that she would never wish on anyone, not even her nastiest enemy.

Smokescreen likened it to a type of PTSD after witnessing her first panic attack when Eric had locked her inside a closet as a part of a harmless prank when they were younger. The bulb had blown while she was in the cramped room, and without even realizing it, she had begun to scream and pound on the door until her panicked brother had released her when he realized she was seriously afraid. It had taken the combined effort of both of her parents, Wheeljack, and Bluestreak (via their bond) to calm her down from her hysterics and Eric had been completely horrified by the reaction his prank had gotten from his little sister that he had sworn never to do something like that again. After that she had been slightly clingy to Bluestreak for a while before eventually returning to her normal self. But it wasn't like she had a panic attack whenever it got dark. If there was even a small amount of light to see by then she was fine; if she knew someone was there with her, she was fine; if she had a way out of the darkness, then everything was okay.

Not like it was in this situation. It was almost pitch black now, and no one was there with her, not even Bluestreak through the bond because he had blocked her out earlier that day to keep from burdening her with the childish guilt of keeping a secret. Without the flashlight working she didn't even have a surefire way of getting back to the car!

Without realizing it, Victoria began to slightly hyperventilate as she attempted to get the device in her hand to come back on. Maybe the bottom had somehow come unscrewed a little and without it being completely closed the batteries had come out of place. It was stupid theory that was most likely wrong, but it gave her a little bit of hope that the light could be fixed and something to do in order to keep her mind off the blackness of the night.

She tried to tighten the bottom of flashlight light, but her panicked, jerky moves caused her to accidentally _unscrew_ it, and the two D batteries fell onto the leaf covered ground beneath her. She froze at what her stupidity had done and scrambled to relocate the batteries quickly before she fell into a full on panic attack, her panicked panting and quickly escalating heartbeat being the only things she could hear at the moment.

Her fingers brushed away leaves and pine needles, throwing a stick out of the way every once in a while, until they came across the first battery, which was soon joined by the second as she scrambled to shove them back into the flashlight. Knowing that the batteries had been relocated allowed Victoria to shove off some of the panic she was experiencing, and she attempted to calmly replace the bottom of the flashlight.

A branch snapping caught her attention just as the flashlight came back on. With the light on, almost all of her fear vanished only to be reignited as she looked up into the bushes in front of her. Something was in them, looking straight back at her with vibrant, almost illuminating, blue eyes. They disappeared for a moment, and she could hear movement before they reappeared even closer to her. Due to the episode she had just experienced and the adrenaline pumping through her, Victoria did the only thing she felt she could do at the moment.

She screamed and threw the flashlight at the thing.

**)(**

Bluestreak vented a sigh for the umpteenth time and glanced over at where Wheeljack was blowtorching two beams of metal together. He settled back into the Transformer-size chair that the engineer had created when they first moved there from scraps of metal and started fiddling with an old, human-sized computer monitor that Wheeljack insisted on having for some reason. "Victoria should be back by now, shouldn't she? I mean, she couldn't have had that many things to deliver, and it's almost ten o'clock, and she would have called if she was going to be out late, so what if something happened to her? She could be stranded on the side of the road right now because that scrap of metal you insisted was safe broke down."

"I highly doubt that," the older mech insisted without looking up. "I don't say something works unless I'm absolutely sure…which is why I don't confirm half of the things I make are safe in case they explode and I can pretend that that was what it was supposed to do." A slight hiccup-like noise could be heard as Bluestreak's engine stalled, and Wheeljack swiftly turned around to assure him. "Not the car though! The worst it'll ever do is pollute the air with that foul exhaust or overheat. There's nothing I've found that works to fix the exhaust part, but Victoria knows to just wait for the engine to cool if it overheats. If anything is gonna make her late, it's that. Instead of worrying and potentially damaging things I need-" He paused momentarily to snatch the computer monitor from Bluestreak before the Praxian could accidentally squish it between his fingers. "-why don't _you_ just call her? She doesn't always have to be the one to call first."

"I've tried that already!" Bluestreak insisted, jumping up to follow the engineer back to his work table, which had been crafted at the same time and from the same material as the chair. "Her phone goes straight to that automated voicemail thing, so she's probably in a bad spot with limited reception."

"You know what? As soon as we're made known to the other humans, I'm gonna make that girl an actual communicator," Wheeljack vowed as he switched between blowtorching to connecting delicate wires to a motherboard that he likely took out of an unused computer. Bluestreak couldn't help but wonder what the engineer's latest project was. "Cellphones are a surprisingly useless human invention. Sure it's useful when you're in the right areas. But as soon as you leave those areas? They just become a paperweight, as Victoria once lovingly accused hers of being before giving me the go ahead to take it apart. Then she had to waste money switching the service. Our comm. links have _never_ caused that much problem."

"And what are you going to do? Insert a comm. link in her head, 'cause that's where ours are located."

"Don't be ridiculous; I'm just the silly, yet handsome, engineer that doesn't have the type of qualifications to do something so delicate. _Ratchet_ will insert it into her head once he learns how to fully operate on humans and I annoy him enough to do something he would probably deem stupid just to get rid of me."

Bluestreak laughed at bit at the engineer, whose facial fins lit up in response to the younger mech's genuine humor, before sobering once more. "Thanks for trying to make me less worried, but I'm still worried about Victoria. It isn't like her to go so long without calling one of us to let us know where she is. If her cellphone didn't work, I'm sure she would have asked someone if she could use their home phone, and I know those people enough to know that they would have happily let her use it. Besides, it's her birthday! Even if she doesn't like celebrating it with a party, she wouldn't stay out all night on her birthday."

"I'm not so sure about that…"

"She isn't that kind of person Wheeljack." Bluestreak pointed a finger at the older Autobot as his fins flashed in preparation of saying something. "No."

Wheeljack shrugged and went back to doing as he pleased. "Why don't you use the bond? This is a perfect opportunity to practice with it."

Bluestreak could only groan as he retreated back to the chair. "We _have_ been practicing with it. We've been trying to figure out every way it can possibly be used, but we never get past just sending emotions to each other. We can't talk through it like Sunny and Sides can. Speaking of those two, I can actually sometimes feel _them_ too, which is just weird. I mean, I don't wanna be able to feel two of my closest friends even if it isn't very often and really quick and usually only happens when they're feeling something very strongly, like when Sunstreaker got angry at this new recruit for scraping up against him in the hallway and taking off a whole crooked streak of paint. Then he was mad at Ironhide for throwing him in the brig after almost beating the mech to death, and he complained about the assault being completely justified. There was a lot of anger floating around the bond that day. And that was before Victoria had even showed up to complete the bond. Oh, I absolutely hated it when the Twins found some gorgeous femme and-"

Wheeljack was extremely thankful when Bluestreak cut off before completing that thought. The young mech needed to learn that there were just certain subjects that shouldn't be babbled about even if it was to keep some long dead conversation going. Wheeljack was a perv from time to time (there was no denying that) but that didn't mean he wanted to hear about what the Twins did behind closed doors. He didn't think _anyone_ wanted to hear what they did.

However, what he _didn't_ appreciate was Bluestreak rushing out of the barn and almost stepping on the human sized work station he had created for when he taught Victoria or had to use his holoform for small projects. "Hey, watch where you're walking!"

"Victoria's in trouble!" Bluestreak yelled back urgently as he transformed into his alt-mode mid-run. _:I've gotta go help her! What if the Decepticons somehow got ahold of her? Or some human's hurting her? Or-:_

"Hold it right there!" Wheeljack quickly reached out to grab the up-to-date Nissan replica's back bumper and pulled Bluestreak to an abrupt halt. He ignored the yelp he received over the comm. link and continued, "Remember the last time you went all gung-ho and dashed off without a second thought? How long it took our neighbors to let go of the whole 'you put a hole through our fence so now every time we see you we have to give you the stink-eye' thing? You know what, now that I think about it I don't think our neighbors ever _did_ forgive us."

_:But this is different!:_ the Praxian insisted as he accelerated in place and kicked up dirt. Wheeljack huffed at the soil that was kicked up into his face and all over his chassis, but he held firm and wouldn't release the other Autobot. _:This is like when Vicky was stuck in the closet bad! There's something seriously wrong Wheeljack.:_

"Call her first," the engineer said sternly, taking on his "officer's tone." It was rare for the mech to use it since he was so easy going, but he _was_ in a position of authority and sometimes that tone was needed to get things done.

"But-"

"_Call her first."_

Bluestreak shuddered at the dark tone that almost gave an angry Ratchet a run for his money. _Almost—_angry Ratchet had wrenches to compliment his angry voice_._ Anyway, it was obvious that Wheeljack wasn't going to let him go until he made the call, so he stopped his wheels and focused on proving Wheeljack wrong, that there was something wrong with Vicky and she wouldn't be able to answer her cell.

Through a comm. link extension, Bluestreak dialed the number to Victoria's phone while at the same time saying, _:I'm telling you, something's wrong, and Victoria's phone isn't working because it goes directly to-:_

"Hello?"

The mech transformed again, just in time to see Wheeljack's "won't answer my aft" look and felt the urge to childishly stick his glossa out. He would have too if he wasn't currently worried about his human friend. "Vicky! What's wrong? I felt your fear, and I got worried. Where are you? Do you need one of us to come get you?"

"I'm fine," she assured him over the phone. For some reason Bluestreak couldn't help but think that she sounded a little unsure, but there was no indication through the bond that anything was amiss, so he let it go. "The station wagon just overheated, and I was in a dead area so I couldn't get a signal. I have a question though. Was there any plan for anyone other than Optimus' team to come to Earth right now?"

Wheeljack, who was listening in too, shrugged when the Praxian turned to him. "As far as I know they were the only ones planning to come. Optimus was planning on sending a message out after he landed for others to come if an agreement with the government was reached."

Bluestreak relayed the information to Victoria, and she hummed in slight confusion. "Why did you wanna know? There's something you're not telling me. I can feel it."

"Well, you guys were keeping secrets from me! Why can't I have a few of my own?" she countered not in anger but nervousness. The Autobot just could not figure out what would make her nervous. Victoria didn't get nervous very often. "I'm about ten minutes out, so I'll see—no sweetie. Don't touch that."

"What?" Wheeljack asked as a sudden shrill came from Victoria's end before the call was dropped. "It sounded like she had a wild animal in the car with her and she was killing it…_very slowly_."

"That's not funny," the younger of the two snapped in agitation, checking the road once before turning to Wheeljack. "I still say something's wrong. Did you hear how she sounded? And when she snapped at us? I knew I should have gone with her today instead of decorating for a party she doesn't even want. I stopped to say hi to Mr. Jackson while I was in town too, and he said that me and Vicky had a new customer. Well, he told me that after he insulted and reprimanded me for leaving her to do all the work alone. Apparently there were a lot of packages today, and one of them was for a 'nutcase.' Wheeljack, why would a case of nuts be getting mail? I mean, I've learned over the years that humans are weird but sending mail to nuts is a little out there."

"Three points I'm about to make," Wheeljack announced as he patted the other mech on the shoulder and held up one finger to begin counting off. "One: the way nutcase is used in this particular way does not literally mean a _nut case._ It means the person is completely insane and has no touch on reality whatsoever, sort of like when Red Alert's doing his surprise search and seizures or when Tracks and Sunstreaker are having a "who's the prettiest mech of all" contest; two: you've been hanging around Prowl too long. Soon you won't even be able to take a joke without dissecting the whole thing to find some logical meaning behind it; and three: Victoria was making a lot better time than she thought because I can see her headlights turning down the drive right now."

Bluestreak twisted around as fast as he could and saw that the engineer was correct—Victoria's beat up car was chugging down the driveway. He waited patiently in front of the house with Wheeljack before transforming down to activate his holoform and meet the human halfway. "Vicky! You're okay. I was getting worried when you didn't call, but I think I've already told you that on the phone. I don't think you should go anywhere else unless you're with us because what if someone had found you while you were stranded on the side of the road and killed you and cut you into little pieces before stuffing you into a bag and then drove to a body of water to dump your hacked remains before driving all the way back to live a normal life until he came across another poor woman stranded on the side of the road."

"Alright," Victoria said in a somewhat calming tone as Wheeljack stared at Bluestreak in disbelief over what had just come out of the sharpshooter's mouth. "You're not allowed to watch anymore crime shows or slasher movies for the rest of eternity. That was worse than the time I went to summer camp for a week and you were convinced I would never come back because there was a crazy mother picking off all the campers one by one."

"I think it's almost up there with the week he refused to let you sleep for fear a killer would invade your dreams and kill you," Wheeljack chimed in once his disbelief had vanished. When he noticed Victoria's glare, he waved his hands in front of him as if to defuse the look. "Don't look at me like that. I wasn't the one who was about to miss a very important event because I was late." At her blank look, he sighed. "You couldn't have forgotten about your birthday."

"Of course I didn't," she said confidently, allowing them to know that she did in fact know it was her birthday. "I just don't get why it's so important. I celebrated the same day seventeen years ago. Technically speaking, I've been alive for forty-two years now—fifty if you count the eight years here that I didn't experience. I have the sudden urge not to celebrate my birthday anymore and not tell anyone my age because I just realized I'm getting old.

"But enough about the unimportant stuff," Victoria continued impatiently. "Are you _sure_ no one was supposed to come to Earth or _send something here?"_

"No," Wheeljack confirmed once more as he and Bluestreak began to suspiciously stare at her. "Why do you suddenly ask this?"

Victoria laced her fingers together and held her two pointer fingers to her lips before slowly saying, "I _may _have found something of the Transformer persuasion on my home tonight." She pointed back at the station wagon. "They're not the smallest Transformers I've seen, but I didn't think a normal one came in that size."

The Autobots stared at the car in confusion before a pair of optics suddenly appeared over the dashboard to stare inquisitively back. A muffled shrill could be heard as the being jumped excitedly in place before flinging itself backwards at the pair of red optics that had appeared in the backseat with more enthusiasm than anything the mechs had ever seen. Victoria turned back to them, only to be greeted with expressions of absolute shock. "So, Autobot or Decepticon? Because they were together and not trying to kill each other, so I assumed they might have some kind of truce between them or one of them did some faction switching."

Instead of answering her question, Wheeljack looked her dead in the eye and asked in a dead serious tone, "Where the _frack_ did you find a pair a _sparklings?"_

* * *

**AN:** There's gonna be some explanations next chapter ;P I had been planning to add them to this chapter, but it was getting too long and any longer would have made me want to split in half like I did with the first chapter. So...yeah! There you go :D

I've also decided to update every two weeks on Saturday. I have no idea if it's the season or just winter break, but for some reason I always get really lazy around the end of the year (more so than usual that is). Two weeks should be enough time to get another chapter written, and if I get it done sooner, I'll post it sooner :) But Saturday shall become the official day of updating, so anything that's ready will get posted then.

Feedback of any kind is most appreciated :D


	6. Sparklings

**AN:** Merry Christmas to everyone :D Consider this your gift for today. If you don't celebrate Christmas…consider this an early update. Either way, everyone wins :)

I'm running out of good quotes too, so that might not last much longer :(

_"Thinking"  
:Com Talk:  
_**~Bond Speech~**

Time Units  
Decivorn: 8.3 years

* * *

A New Version of Reality

Chapter Four

Sparklings

**Children are our most valuable resource. –Herbert Hoover**

* * *

It was quiet in the room as Bluestreak and Victoria watched the stare-off currently going on between Wheeljack and the little blue-eyed sparkling who sat on the couch. Every time Wheeljack, who was sitting on the coffee table in front of the couch, would lean in to get a better look, the Sparkling would also lean forward, softly giggling as if it were a game. The engineer leaned to the side to get a better look and so did the sparkling, except the sparkling's slightly bigger head caused it to fall over. All it did was giggle like crazy. "I've never seen a protoform designed this way, not even for a-"

And then the sparkling opened its mouth and loudly screeched. The high-pitched noise caused the holoformed mechs to flinch and instantly disable their current form's auditory input. Victoria wasn't so lucky and had to cover her ears with her hands. Even the red optic sparkling, who had crawled up onto the seat under the window after shakily walking into the house (and falling a good number of time but growling whenever anyone attempted to help), jolted back online from the light recharge it had fallen into just to glare at the source of the screeching.

"Why the frag does it keep doing that when we speak?"

"Language Wheeljack," Victoria lightly scolded once the shrieking had stopped and the sparkling was grinning at them proudly. "And I don't know why. He just started doing that after I first found them. I thought something was wrong at first, but then he would laugh as if it was a joke."

"It's not a very funny joke," Bluestreak pouted. "It hurts my audials all the way outside."

"Which is why we don't do it," Victoria continued as she walked over to kneel in front of the couch where the sparkling still laid on his side. He began to click inquisitively and reach out to touch her face. "No we don't. It hurts Vicky's ears; yes it does."

"We should've got you a kid years ago," Wheeljack commented while observing how the human modulated her voice to be high-pitched and simple. "I don't think I've ever seen you act this way."

Victoria turned a glare on him before turning back to the sparkling, who was now chewing on his own fist while watching her with clear, vibrant optics. "Is this really a Transformer baby? They're both so adorable, but I thought they'd be bigger, considering the size of you two."

"Not necessarily," Wheeljack said as he walked over to kneel before the second sparkling, ignoring the warning growls. "You'd actually be surprise as to how small sparklings can be. Mini-Bots are the smallest documented, unless Cassettes can somehow copulate with one another, then they would probably form the smallest sparklings. But there's never been any research into that because no one's actually seen a Cassette sexually interact with anyone and the mechs outfitted to be Cassette carriers are very protective of their symbiots. Even Blaster, one of our own, wouldn't let Ratchet patch his Cassettes up after a battle. He'd do it on his own, and he was very good at caring for them. I'm willing to bet that that's a Mini-Bot in the making because it is slightly smaller than the average sparkling. Now _this one_ appears to just be a runt for its frame type, and if it would only stay still for a sec, I might be able to tell what kind of type that is… "

Victoria shook her head as the engineer began to feint left and right in an attempt to catch the uncooperative sparkling off guard. When it was obvious that his strategy wasn't working, she turned back to the couch to examine the other sparkling more closely and almost awed at the sight; the sparkling had abandoned his tiny servo in favor of gumming on his equally tiny pede, making noises that she couldn't help but interpret as some version of "omnomnomnom."

The little sparkling looked astonishingly like a young human toddler to her. Proportion wise, he was almost as big as three or four year-old with a slightly bigger head than what would be considered normal. From the top of that head sprang a series of short wires that were protectively wrapped by tiny springs, giving her the impression of "curly hair." His face was fairly rotund with huge, bright blue optics set just the right width apart, a little pointed nose, and off course the wide mouth that made his smiles look so big and happy. The rest of him was fairly plain compared to the head: his appearance was more mechanical than human but less complicated that the older mechs with nearly invisible seams which would later correspond to whatever armor the sparkling would later be outfitted with; he was a gunmetal grey that lightened in the face and "hair;" had five little fingers and two tiny pedes; and a light blue flickering in his chest that was just visible enough to see through the thin malleable metal that covered his body.

In a way, the sparkling's appearance was so familiar yet so alien at the same time that it made the human pause briefly before reaching out to lightly stroke the springs and wires that covered the sparkling's helm. He stopped chewing on his pede to look at her with surprise before a little rumbling emitted from his chest, almost like purring. "Awe! Blue, he's as adorable as you are when the top part of your door-wings are petted."

"No he isn't," Bluestreak immediately denied, a pout springing to his face as he crossed his arms defensively where he still stood in the entrance of the room. "I'm the most adorable Autobot there is. It's like my unofficial title right after 'Best Sharpshooter Since Ever.'"

Victoria blinked in confusion before a sly grin spread across her face. "Bluestreak, are you _jealous_ of a little baby?"

"No!"

"I think he is," Wheeljack piped in while still attempting to grab the dodgy sparkling on the window seat. "Even Bumblebee has never completely been able to take that unofficial title from him, though it was _very _close for a little while. This little sparkling waltzes in and you're suddenly cooing over him like there's no tomorrow. I'd be a little threatened if my position was in jeopardy too, but fortunately, I never have to worry about anyone coming along and taking 'The Universe's Most Handsome Mech Alive.'"

"Yep, Ratchet's got that title in the bag." Bluestreak giggled a little at the joke while Wheeljack pretended to be offended. The sparkling struggled to sit up and see Bluestreak over the arm of the couch before falling back over with a giggle eerily similar to Bluestreak's. "Oh yeah, Wheeljack you might want to-"

"Yeow! Fragging fragger, slagging pit-"

"-watch out because he bites."

"_Really?"_ Wheeljack hissed through clenched teeth. He struggled to wrench his hand away out of the sparkling's mouth as he snarled softly. "I couldn't fragging tell!"

"Language Wheeljack," Victoria scolded again, this time more seriously.

"These sparklings are a bad influence! I've never cursed so much in my life before meeting these little bitlets, and would you please release my hand little one? You're not doing any real damage." The red optic sparkling snarled again. "I'm sorry, I don't speak fluent 'Snarlian.'"

Wheeljack's hand rippled, and he wiggled his freed fingers in front of the shocked sparkling. "You didn't even hurt me; I was just surprised." The Transformer child huffed and awkwardly twisted around to lie on his other side with his back to them. "Fine, be that way. I'll be sure to remember that when I get around to making some Energon goodies…hello. What are these?"

The sparkling squealed and flipped back over to bite again. Wheeljack jumped back after making physical contact and temporarily abandoned the snarling sparkling to rejoin Victoria in front of the couch. "That one is definitely a Seekerlet."

"What's a Seekerlet?" Victoria asked, turning to Wheeljack. That turned out to be a fairly bad move as she was suddenly tackled by a squealing mass. "What the-!"

"I knew they were dangerous!" Bluestreak said, blinking as the sparkling griped Victoria's face with its tiny hands and began to squeeze her lips together while making nonsense noise. "They're probably just Decepticon drones programed to act innocent. Except that one over there obviously has some glitches."

"Are you suddenly channeling Red Alert?" Wheeljack asked as he took the chance of having the sparkling distracted to pull out the twigs and leaves that were tangled up in the wire and springs on top of his head. "You've been on edge since Victoria got home. I can assure you that these two are bonafide sparklings. If this one stayed still long enough, I'll be able to tell if it's a mech or femme. The biter may have to be referred to as 'it' until Ratchet arrives."

"Don't be silly," Victoria said through squished lips. The sparkling giggled at the funny sound and changed tactics to pull her cheeks out instead. "They're both little boys."

"I still think they're Decepticons drones," Bluestreak grumbled under his breath. When it was obvious that the other two didn't take his theory seriously, he huffed and disappeared into the kitchen. "Fine, don't take me seriously! I'm going to eat some cake, which is a yummy two layered chocolate and peanut butter cake with buttercream frosting. And I'm eating it all!"

"Just be aware of how much that is to vomit later," Wheeljack yelled after him before pulling the sparkling off of the human before he could accidentally pull her skin off. "Now come here little runt before we have to take a human to the hospital. It would be hard to explain to the doctors how half of her cheek was pulled off." He noticed Victoria staring off into the kitchen where Bluestreak was slicing up a huge piece of cake. "Don't worry about him. He acted the same way after Jazz found 'Bee. He thought Jazz would be assigned as Bumblebee's guardian because the guy was spending more time with the new kid than Blue. Once he understood that 'Bee wasn't taking Jazz away, he was perfectly fine. He gets the same way with Prowl sometimes and now I guess it'll be the same with you."

"If you say so. He won't let me in right now, so it's just a little hard to figure out what's going on because he's never acted this way before." With a sigh, Victoria turned away from watching Bluestreak stick a huge fork-full of cake into his mouth to watching Wheeljack and the sparkling. She smiled as the engineer happily made silly faces at the mechling he held, who happily giggled and immediately attempted to reproduce the same looks. "You never answered my question. What's a Seekerlet? And I thought you told me your kind weren't able to make babies. They needed the AllSpark cube that Bumblebee's currently searching for."

"To answer your first question, a Seekerlet is just a term for a sparkling or youngling with the Seeker frame. The Seekers tended to be separated from what they deemed 'groundpounders' centuries before the war began. Because of the separation, they became fairly isolated from the rest of Cybertron and created their own language. Right before the war began and the Seekers started to mingle back into the rest of society, instead of immersing themselves fully back into the culture of the 'outside world,' they tended to replace common words with rough translations of their own language. 'Sparkling' translated from the language came out as 'Seekerlet,' so the term was accepted by non-Seekers to refer to the sparklings of Seekers by that.

"Now for your second question there's a slightly more complicated answer. The AllSpark has been Cybertron's source of life for a long time. In fact, there's not that much documentation of the time before the AllSpark was first discovered. So in a way yes, the AllSpark was the main and most popular source of 'reproduction' for our race. It provided the sparks, and we provided the frames. That's one of the reasons why _bonafide_ sparklings aren't really that common."

"'A bonafide sparkling,'" Victoria repeated while continuing to watch the sparkling. He was now making faces without Wheeljack's prompting and clicking whenever the engineer's attention strayed. This little thing definitely enjoyed attention. She stuck her tongue out at him when he glanced over his shoulder to see her, and the action was reciprocated without a moment of hesitation, making her laugh. The Seekerlet, who still laid on the window seat with his back to them, glanced over his shoulder and huffed at the sight of the three before ignoring them again. "What do you mean by that? I would think that a newborn was a newborn no matter how it was created."

"I guess it's more my definition than anything else," Wheeljack attempted to explain. "It's just that with the AllSpark, the spark created can be immediately place into an adult frame. That newly made mech or femme completely bypasses the sparkling and youngling stage, and though it doesn't suddenly know everything, it can easily just download the information because adult frames have that capability. Like how Bluestreak learned Spanish and French so easily."

"Esta torta es muy bueno," Bluestreak showed off from the kitchen as he started on a second slice of cake, adding the perfect accent that made the words less awkward and more natural sounding. "Être jaloux parce que je ne suis toujours pas partager."

"Thank you for showing off Blue."

"Nessun problema. Lasciati sorprendere dalla talenti."

"And he's learned another language just like that," Wheeljack pointed out, patting the springs and wires of the sparkling's head as he chirped in question while staring at Bluestreak. "My point is that sparklings don't have that ability. See, look here." Victoria leaned over and watched as Wheeljack carefully began prying apart the child's "hair" to see the smooth helm hidden underneath it. "Consider this a severely dumbed down version of sparkling physical development. Remember the medical port I pointed out; the one located at the base of the helm?"

"Yeah, but I don't see it."

"It's there, just underdeveloped and unusable. For the first few decivorns, medics actually have to perform hands on examinations because they can't use the medical ports to just link to the patient and run system checks. Sparklings can't link to _anything,_ which means they can't download anything." He gently pressed his finger at a slight indent where the before mentioned port should be. The sparkling shifted uncomfortably but settled down to play with the goggles around the disguised mech's neck. "Protoforms and sparks are the only part of a Cybertronian that can actually grow. For an implant into a fully grown frame, the metal compound used for the protoforms is melted and poured into a mold to fit the adult spark chamber, 'organs,' and other parts, and because of that makes it fairly specific for whatever armor the mech can use. The protoform is set and is rarely able to form another way without a medic's help. If the receivers of the new spark place the spark into a molded sparkling frame, then instead of growing to fit the maturing spark, the frame has to be updated to keep up with the growth.

"Now a real sparkling's protoform, like this one, is different. To understand it you need to know how the sparks are formed." He paused briefly to see if he still had her attention before continuing. "These sparks aren't from the AllSpark. These form when two mature sparks make contact. It's a pretty rare occurrence, but not unheard of for a smaller spark to fissure off due to the energy surge created when the two sparks retreat. The new spark's formation is as detectable as when a human female first becomes pregnant; it isn't noticeable until symptoms like exhaustion, the unconscious consumption of more Energon than usual, unusual discharges passing through the body, possible mood swings, and maybe even the occasional crash if the parent spark isn't adjusting properly to the new spark."

"I honestly thought hearing you explain this would be more…uncomfortable," Victoria commented as she placed her elbows on her knees and balanced her chin in the palms of her hands. The sparkling saw her movements and twisted around in Wheeljack's lap to mimic her, looking at her with bright blue optics filled with anticipation of learning something new.

"Actually I'm getting to the uncomfortable part." Bluestreak suddenly giggled from the kitchen, quickly shoving another piece of cake into his mouth when Victoria glanced at him. "Remember that part in the sketch of our anatomy that I told you to ignore at the time?"

Victoria nodded hesitantly. "Well, I told you to ignore it because I was actually teaching you something at the time and I didn't want to get distracted by torturing you. I also didn't put everything in that rough sketch because those parts are used more for recreational purposes and don't actually do anything outside of those…_activities._"

The woman stared at him blankly before her eyes widened. "Oh my God; please don't tell me you giant robots have a…the same kind of 'equipment' we do."

"If by equipment you mean a penis or vagina, then no. And don't be ashamed to talk about your physical anatomy! You humans have such weird taboos when it comes to that; you can't even talk about it in a scientific, nonsexual way. Like I could tell you all about the spike and the-"

"That's because _some _of us aren't perverted bastards like you! And if it doesn't involve making robot babies, I don't wanna know the name of it!"

"Language Victoria," Wheeljack scolded with a grin while playfully covering an inquisitively chirping sparkling's audials. "We don't want the sparklings picking up on your dirty language."

Victoria rolled her eyes while Bluestreak attempted to stifle his laughter by hiding his face in his arms. "Whatever Wheeljack. Just tell me how the protoform is made in the least descriptive way possible." Wheeljack began to open his mouth, but Victoria lifted a hand to stop him. "And no, I don't want to hear you talk about a…spike and whatever that happens to go into."

The engineer hummed and bounced the sparkling on his knee, getting surprised giggles. "Darn, that eliminates about three versions of the explanation and all of the good parts. Anyway, that part I told you to ignore was what we call the gestational chamber, which is usually rectangular in shape and made up of this thin, almost membrane-like type of metal. The component can be found in either mech or femme, which is what ultimately labels them as 'carriers.' It can also be transplanted, but that's a tale for another time. When a new spark begins the process of budding off of the adult spark, a normally dormant protocol activates, and the gestational chamber begins to cannibalize pieces of the carrier's protoform to form the sparkling's and fills with mineral enriched Energon to nourish the sparkling in its development."

"That sounds kinda dangerous. Cannibalizing your parts to make another little being?"

"_That's _why you get such small sparklings through this process, and why this process is considered to be archaic when compared to the way less complicated process of the AllSpark. A carrier's gestational program knows when to stop and what areas of the protoform can be cannibalized without severely harming the mech or femme. I can't exactly explain that accurately, but Ratchet could give you a very detailed explanation. Now on to the birthing phase! It's pretty interesting really since it's kinda like how you humans give birth. As a matter of fact, Ratchet shared a video with me from his Academy days on the process. I'm pretty sure I still have it saved somewhere…"

"No!" Victoria immediately shouted, making both Wheeljack and the sparklings to jump at the outburst. Bluestreak just snickered and ate his cake. "I mean…I just…oh who the hell am I kidding? I don't want to see a giant robot birth a sparkling!"

"But-"

"No."

"I think you would benefit fro-"

"_Wheeljack."_

By this time Bluestreak was dying of laughter in the next room while Wheeljack sighed and put a hand over the sparkling's mouth as it thought it would be a good idea to repeat Victoria's outburst with screeches of its own. "Fine. But you're missing out on some very educational resources here. Besides, the sparkling doesn't go through a birthing canal and out a hole a quarter of their head's size. It's more like a C-section. The plates covering the chamber just shift out of the way and the sparkling is cut right out of the chamber, which then heals naturally and prepares for the next possible sparkling to come along. You sure you don't want to see the video? I could get that old projector I found in the barn and-"

He stopped when he noticed the woman's glare. "Alright! But I'm just going to come right out and say that that will be my suggestion for next movie night, which by the way will be _my_ turn to pick. We'll label it under 'Medical Documentary.' Now onward to the lesson on how to figure out the 'sex' of a sparkling! First you've gotta pop their little chest plates open to get a clear view of their sparks."

While he spoke, Wheeljack flipped the wiggling sparkling over to lie on its back, grinning as it giggled and squealed while attempting to get away. With little preamble, he reached between two of the invisible seams are either side of the sparkling's chest and popped the tiny, almost invisible catches that kept the chassis closed. Neither expected the giggles to suddenly cut off and frightened screams emit from the tiny body. Victoria covered her ears again as the sparkling awkwardly scrambled away from the engineer, tumbling to the floor and crawling under the coffee table.

Before anyone could reach for the now whimpering sparkling, the bigger Seekerlet, who had been thought to have fallen back into recharge because of his silence, was suddenly tackling Wheeljack and latching onto his shoulder with his tiny mouth and digging its sharp talons into any spot he could reach. Bluestreak rushed out of the kitchen to grab the snarling Seekerlet and restrain it as Wheeljack stumbled to a stand. "See? I told you guys they were dangerous! Whoa, I wonder if this is how Red Alert feels when one of his extreme accusations actually ends up being true. It's kind of exhilarating! Ouch! Stop pinching me."

"They are _not_ dangerous," Victoria protested as she bent down to look under the table. "He's just looking out for his little friend, and when he saw him freaking out, he must have thought we were hurting the other."

A pair of bright blue optics that were just seconds ago with innocent joy and curiosity now stared back with unadulterated fear as tiny servos attempted to cover his exposed spark and fearful hiccups came from him. Beads of blue liquid gathered under those fearful optics, and Victoria could feel her heart breaking by second, and it broke even more when he shied away from her with a fearful whimper. "No one's going to hurt you sweetie. We just wanted to make sure you were okay."

"And whether you are a mech or a femme," Wheeljack added as he dusted himself off before moving to help Bluestreak with the Seekerlet, which was putting up more of a fight and actually winning.

Victoria sat up to glare at the engineer before crouching back down to see the sparkling using one hand to clumsily wipe at its face while the other still rested over its spark. "Come here and I'll close your chest plate. Wheeljack will just have to look you over in the morning." The sparkling twittered sadly and slid a little closer to her hand. "That's right. I'm not going to hurt you sweetie, and I promise not to let Wheeljack open your chest plate again tonight. We'll figure out what to do in the morning. Now just come here…"

Another twitter was released before the sparkling tentatively reached out with the hand that had been wiping its face. Victoria smiled encouragingly as she felt the small hand touch her palm and helped him crawl out and into her lap. He still refused to move the hand over his chest and curled closer to her when Wheeljack tried to approach. She cooed softly and petted the top of his helm until he relaxed a bit.

Meanwhile, Bluestreak was wrestling the Seekerlet back over to the window. The Seekerlet was almost as tall as the holoform though and continuously struggled to get away, growls and snarls turning into shrieks and screeches as Bluestreak managed to lift the small Transformer up by the waist, which caused its almost bird-like pedes to kick in the air. As terrible as it was, Victoria couldn't help but take the time to fully notice how the Seekerlet looked now that she had a good view of him.

In some ways, he was similar to the smaller sparkling. He was gunmetal grey (a color that she was beginning to understand was the color of _all_ protoforms), had the almost invisible seams, and she could only see a faint blue light from his spark, leading her to believe that he might have a slightly thicker metal making up his frame. But his frame was wider at the top where the other sparkling's was relatively consistent in width from top to bottom. There were also tiny vents on the side of his smooth, rounded helm and what looked like hollow holes in the heels of his pedes, but it was hard to tell as he swung them around.

Her attention soon turned back to the little form in her lap as it clicked softly and tentatively pulled at the hand that still held his. She softly cooed back to him before looking to Wheeljack. "How do I shut the chest plates?"

"Just gently shut the plates and hold them in place while snapping the latches closed," Wheeljack instructed, watching from an appropriate distance so as not to frighten the sparkling again. "That wasn't a very common reaction. Sparklings are usually way less agitated to show their sparks than adults. In fact, I've only seen a few grown mechs react that way. And they certainly don't scream like that."

"Hey! Would someone please help me with him?" Bluestreak cried as the Seekerlet had managed to twist around and get a good grip on the Autobot's hair, showing off the (cute) little wing nubs that wiggled in time with its less than cute (but still somehow adorable) growls. "I might be able to turn off feeling in the holoform, but that doesn't change the fact that he's trying to eat me!"

"Don't be silly. Seekers are too picky with what they consume to eat some random charged photons, let alone ones that look like hair and human squishiness. Now stop playing with the kid and put him down."

Bluestreak huffed and waddled over to drop the attacking Seekerlet on the couch, giving up on getting the little Seeker back on the window seat. The Seekerlet squawked in offense before glaring at the three beings that he didn't trust, which was understandable. All he had known was mechanical creatures that were similar to him but also towered over him. Now he was faced with things the same size as him that scared his little friend.

At least the other sparkling was finally calming down. His hiccups were slowly dying now that his spark was covered, and he was looking over at Wheeljack curiously when the engineer sat across from him and Victoria. Unfortunately that put him directly by the Seekerlet, who hissed and sidled away until he was scrunched up into the corner of the couch. "What would make him respond the way he did if sparklings don't normally react that way?"

Wheeljack studied both of the sparklings while Bluestreak shuffled over to sit on the floor beside Victoria and the sparkling she held. The Praxian tilted his head sideways to see the little face that was now hiding shyly into the front of Victoria's shirt. "Hey, don't cry little guy. What happened to the little bitlet that was just copying everything we do in an extreme way?"

The sparkling clicked as Bluestreak reached a hand out to wipe away some of the blue beads of liquid that had slid down his cheeks. Victoria noticed this and turned to Bluestreak since Wheeljack had suddenly gotten quiet. "What is that? I didn't even know you guys were capable of crying."

"It's thin Energon, and our systems produce it when we are extremely distressed," Bluestreak answered as he rubbed two moistened fingertips together. "It isn't very good to keep it in our systems for very long, so the body tends to get rid of it either through different means. Sometimes it mixes with oral fluids to be spat out or flows out of tiny tubes located around the optics, which makes the crying effect. I've only seen sparklings cry regularly, but I guess that's what babies do, and it's easier than spitting it out."

"When did you become a doctor?" Victoria lightly teased as the little form in her arms began to unfurl again and watch Bluestreak, who smiled and waved as if he hadn't been jealous just minutes ago.

"I hear a thing or two when I visit the Twins in the infirmary. Hey there little guy! You wanna play a little game? The humans call it 'peek-a-boo' and their offspring seem to enjoy it." Bluestreak held his hands in front of his face, causing the sparkling to frown slightly, before removing his hands and saying, "Peek-a-boo!"

Little optics shuttered for a second before the sparkling gave a shrieking laugh and clapped his own hands in front of his face. He waited for a moment before removing them and whistling with a giggle. Bluestreak caught on and repeated the actions several times while the sparkling repeated him with gusto. It was watching them both play that Victoria suddenly had an epiphany between the switch of the sparkling "peek-a-booing" and Bluestreak. "Recall."

Bluestreak stopped mid peek-a-boo to look at her questionably. "Huh?"

"Recall," she repeated with more conviction and she turned the sparkling around to face her. He clicked and tilted his head in question. "That'll be your name from now on. You pointed it out earlier. He copies almost everything Wheeljack does with him; when he was squishing my face earlier, I think he was just trying to move my lips in the same way while he 'talked'; he immediately caught onto peek-a-boo after watching you do it once; and I think his screaming earlier was because he thought that was how we talked."

"Why would he think that though?"

"Uh, no reason. The point is that he likes to copy things he sees, and I know that 'recall' doesn't exactly mean to copy, but he's memorizing what he sees and hears and later brings it back up. Like that." She pointed to the silly face the sparkling was making with his thumbs touching his cheeks and wiggling his fingers while his glossa hung out like Wheeljack had shown him minutes ago. "It also sounds Transformer-ish, and I really do think it fits him."

"We're not even sure if it's a mechling yet," Bluestreak said but nevertheless nodded in agreement. "But it does sound pretty good, and I don't think I've heard the name. What do you think Wheeljack?"

Wheeljack jumped a little as his name was said and nodded absentmindedly. "Huh? Oh, yeah, sounds great. Can you guys excuse me for a bit? I'm gonna go…start filtering the Energon. Sparklings can only consume low-grade at this size, and the process of filtering it from oil takes a while plus it'll take a little longer to thin it to the right consistency."

The engineer dismissed the holoform without another word, and Bluestreak and Victoria exchanged twin looks of confusion. "What's up with him? Do you think Recall's freak out earlier affected him more than we thought?"

"I don't know, but maybe we should leave him alone for a little." Victoria held the sparkling, now dubbed Recall, up by the armpits and brought him close to her face. He giggled as Victoria rubbed her nose against his and griped her head to keep her still so that he could repeat the action with happy chirps. "You are just too adorable for your own good, little Recall! I could just eat you up; yes I could!"

"It's weird how a femme can change so drastically in the presence of a sparkling," Bluestreak commented to himself while watching his friend gush over Recall, who ate the attention up. He looked over to the Seekerlet who was curled up on the couch and watching them between through his arms. The Seekerlet immediately hid back under his arms, but not fast enough for Bluestreak to miss the jealous glint in his red optics. "What about the Seekerlet? You got a name for him?"

Victoria passed Recall off to Blue, who stuttered in surprise as the sparkling clung to him like a koala bear, and crawled over to where the unnamed sparkling sat. He saw her coming and growled lightly, trying to scrunch further into the couch to get away. "That's a good question. What's a good Seeker name?"

"Don't ask me. Something dealing with flying maybe? Or the sky? I don't know. Honestly I've only paid attention to the names of the Elite Trine, and I don't think it's very appropriate to name him after them. Vicky, is it okay for sparklings to be eating their own hands?"

"Yeah, babies do it all the time," Victoria answered offhandedly as she reached out to pet one of the tiny bumps on the Seeklet's back. A similar sound to Recall's purring emitted from the Seeker child's frame, making him loosen up a bit without realizing it. "Skyblaze? Streamline? Aero-something? Storm Cloud?"

The Seekerlet's head suddenly snapped up to beep at her angrily before awkwardly climbing over the couch's arm. Victoria watched him half-walk, half-crawl to the window seat before pulling himself up onto it, grunting in effort as he did. She glanced over to Bluestreak, who simply shrugged while Recall decided that he was curious to figure out what was under the blond's shirt. The human shrugged and followed the Seekerlet over to the window.

She expected him to ignore her but was surprised he looked over his shoulder and carefully clicked. Victoria sat on the floor cross-legged in front of him. "You really like that seat, huh? I think it's pretty comfortable too. It's nice to curl up here with a book when the sun is at just the right angle in the sky. And I have a clear view of the barn, so if it ever catches on fire I'll know immediately."

The sparkling huffed, as if annoyed with her consistent babble, and reached out to put a hand on the window. The woman leaned closer, leaning her elbows on the pillow and refusing to twitch when the mechling scooted away from her. She looked outside to see Wheeljack's barn lit up, some light streaming out of the big door that was cracked open and creating shadows whenever the mech inside walked past it. "You wanna go see Wheeljack's barn? I'm sure he'll let you go in there tomorrow; we just have to make sure nothing dangerous is lying around first."

The Seekerlet huffed again in annoyance before tapping against the window as high as he could reach. Victoria looked up and it finally dawned on her what the sparkling was attempting to show her. "Oh, the stars! You like the stars?" He nodded and chirped as he pointed towards the lights in the sky more insistently. "They are very pretty."

The mechling gave her a look, an angry little look that turned more into a cute little pout the longer she looked at it, and growled while pointing at the stars and then deliberately pointing to himself. The woman blinked. "You want to be named after a star? Like…Sirius? Or maybe a constellation, like Orion." The sparkling screeched and banged against the window in aggravation. "Fine, we'll just call you Star! You're not happy with any of the other names, so that'll just have to do."

The Seekerlet, now officially named Star, nodded in approval before purposely turning his back to her as if to say, "Our conversation is over, now leave my presence." Victoria shrugged and stood up to return to Bluestreak and Recall, but not before gently patting Star on the helm. He swatted at her, clicking angrily, and curled up into a ball of huffiness. She shook her head at his attitude and turned back to the other two. "You're a very smart little sparkling for choosing your own name. Wheeljack might be able to find a new little student in you…Bluestreak, why is Recall inside your shirt?"

"Shh!" Bluestreak shushed as he placed his chin on the top of the sparkling's "curly hair." Recall twittered playfully and wiggled underneath the shirt while his head hung over the collar of the shirt. "We're bonding over here."

Victoria stared for a moment and shook her head. "That's kind of creepy. I'm stealing some of your cake, and maybe while I'm doing that you two can find a way to bond that doesn't involve him being in your shirt."

"She's just jealous," Bluestreak confided as Recall chirped sadly when Victoria was no longer in the room. "You know what? You actually are pretty cute now that I get a good look at you. Not as cute as me of course, but I can teach you how to be just as adorable. And when to avoid Wheeljack's work spaces at certain times; and how not to be caught when doing pranks with the Twins and Jazz; and how to stuff twenty marshmallows in your mouth with gagging; and how to shoot a Decepticon from a hundred yards away without being seen!"

"Bluestreak, you are not training that baby to kill before he can even walk!"

"Just ignore her; she's still jealous."

**)(**

He had been one of Sector 7's greatest agents, unofficially of course. He prided himself on being a "jack of all trades" kind of guy. An excellent field agent who had prevented the public from panicking by tracking down and confiscating alien tech; an expert hacker, programmer, and one of the most knowledgeable reverse engineers in the organization off the field.

But did anyone ever acknowledge James Preston's successes? Of course not! Attention had always been given to kiss-ass Simmons. Simmons did this, and Simmons does that. Did you hear how Simmons singlehandedly tracked down that new N.B.E? And then let it get away just like that? But that's alright because there was a new N.B.E number to go with the other dozen Simmons wasn't able to capture!

It didn't matter how much progress James made—he was always overlooked. What had happened when he had designed an extraordinary weapon after studying N.B.E 01 for nearly eight years? The higher-ups had rejected it without a second glance and put him on another project. That weapon could have opened up so many possibilities. They would have been able to fight those robotic creatures when they invaded their planet to find their leader!

And then he had messed up.

It had been an honest mistake though. The new alien they had been chasing, him and Simmons because _Simmons_ had been the only lead field agent available at the time, had done its freaky transforming thing and disguised itself as a local law enforcement vehicle. Simmons had told him to fall back, but he refused to allow that thing to blend into society and endanger civilians. So what if he had run a _real_ cop off of the road and into the ditch? The cop had survived with only a few broken ribs and fractured arm.

Banachek had confronted him after the accident and explained that the "big guys" were a little concerned about his recent actions. _Simmons_ had exaggerated the incident and the agency had begun to reevaluate James' mental stability in light of a few other unmentionable instances, suggesting that perhaps it would have been a good idea for the man to take a brief vacation. In other words they were going to get rid of him.

But James had been smart. Before they could get rid of him, he had run. Anyone who was dismissed from the organization was never seen again; it didn't take a genius to figure out _why._ All of his research had been deleted from the system, the originals safely in his possession. Isolation had been the best plan for him; someplace he could continue his research without worrying about being caught.

James had been living that way for five years. Of course he had scouted the area, made sure that there weren't hidden enemies around. Everything had checked out, though the people were dumber than a sack of bricks and ignorant of the real world outside of their tiny town. But his little displays of "craziness" kept people away and allowed him to work in peace.

Until that old cantankerous man at the post office had fired the only delivery man he trusted. No one else had handled his mail since he had moved there, and he wasn't about to have someone who worked for the government asking questions about his deliveries after so meticulously paying his delivery man to deliver without question, even if the package had some hazardous warning label on it. So of course he had hired an individual delivery business, one with only two people working for it. The old gossiping hags in town had mentioned them. Not to him of course, seeing as he had made sure not to be seen, but either way he had heard.

James would admit that he had a little freak out when only a girl barely out of her teens had shown up at his house. There were supposed to be _two_ people to show up, so when only _one_ got out of the car, he immediately thought that someone had been attempting to pull a fast one over him. He never liked being tricked.

He had only felt a little bad when the girl had freaked out. That had been a good thing because it ensured that she wouldn't try anything funny. The woman, Victoria Anderson if the identification she had shown him was real, had gladly cooperated after that, and everything was going well.

Until she knocked over his box of radiation detectors.

Those devices had been especially important because it had taken him a year and a half to calibrate them to immediately pick up on the radiation signature similar to N.B.E 01's. He was slightly anal about his equipment as well and had never liked it when his former colleagues touched his stuff. So when they had crashed to the floor, he _had_ been a little upset. And he might have wanted to hit her if the detector hadn't gone off.

For a moment he had thought that the woman was being kept a prisoner by those…_things_. The ones that Sector 7 had been tracking had never had a problem with attacking civilians. But the way she had so pointedly denied it made it obvious that she knew something. James was determined to figure out exactly what that was.

So he had followed her. He had sat out of sight for the first three houses she had visited, watching her leave a package on the steps of one house when no one answered her knock and sit down on the patio of another to have a tea party with two little girls. He must have fallen asleep somewhere around the fifth house because one minute it was sunny and the next it was almost pitch black.

James had felt like kicking himself as he tore down the empty back roads on his way back to his house. How could he have fallen asleep in the middle of tailing someone? Was he that out of practice? Whatever the case was, he had completely lost his target and the odds of seeing her again anytime soon were slim to none.

Feelings of failure occupying him for the moment, he had almost missed the giant fireball falling from the sky. The surprise of it had caused him to jerk the steering wheel and almost drive into one of the trees that lined the road on either side.

Blinking in confusion, James stepped out of the car and gaped as the thing touched down further into the dense trees. After fumbling under the seat for a flashlight, he rushed off into the trees without a second thought, not wanting to miss this opportunity. A foreign object falling from the sky? Hell, even if it wasn't one of those things seeing a meteor would be interesting.

It took him almost a half hour of tripping, getting scratched by brambles, and stopping once to dig a pebble out of his shoe before he reached the small clearing that had been created by the touchdown. Little patches of smoldering fires lined the path the object had slid along before coming to a halt.

James stared at it before rushing over to examine it. The only alien thing he had ever been able to observe up close and personal had been the frozen N.B.E 01, and he'd be damned if he let the opportunity to beat the bastards of S7 to alien tech slip past him. He cautiously stepped towards what he determined was some type of pod open at the top when a noise from inside made him freeze.

His hand shot to his side as if to grab a weapon and cursed when he remember that he had left the house without it. He took a step backwards and prepared to dash away if anything were to shoot out of the pod. Minutes passed before he relaxed enough step closer and peek inside.

What he saw made him blink. What was that little thing curled up in the bottom of the pod? Another type of alien perhaps? It wasn't big enough to be like any N.B.E he had ever seen. Maybe it was a pet or some type of waste product…well, that just inspired a number of questions he had never thought of before.

The thing in the pod moved, and he watched as some kind of yellow light flickered to life on one end. He watched it wiggle slightly and emit a tiny pathetic cry before the twin lights flickered back off.

A scream not far from where he stood caused James to jump. Acting quickly, he leaped up onto the pod and scooped up the newfound specimen. Its lights came back on immediately and it looked almost confused as James held it under his arm like a football and sprinted back in the direction of his car.

This…this was better than anything he'd ever come across while working for Sector 7. A live specimen—one that wasn't frozen in time or guarded 24/7. This was the chance of a lifetime! So many things had just open up. He, he could…he couldn't even think at the moment he was so excited! He was like a little kid on Christmas morning.

…now if only he could be a kid on Christmas morning who knew how to get back to his car…

**)(**

Wheeljack sighed as he stepped through the back door and into the house. In his hands were two containers that he had meticulously molded to make it easier for the sparklings to consume the Energon sloshing around inside. He had never thought that converting human oil into a low enough grade for the children to ingest would have been so difficult and time consuming. But he had finally done it after a couple of hours; hopefully there weren't any restless sparklings looking for something to fill their bellies…

The engineer paused, took one step back, and turned to face the wall. He tilted his head one way and then another. "Why is there cake on the wall?"

He ventured further into the house, stepping over a little pile of more cake and coming across a splatter of ice cream on the wall. It was like the first food war had taken place in the brief period of time he had been. He was actually kind of sad that he had missed it.

Then again when he finally caught sight of the kitchen, he was kind of happy that he _did_ miss it. It would have been easier just to label the surfaces that weren't covered in cake or the sticky residue of ice cream. Everything—from the floor to the ceiling—seemed to have one or the other splattered across it. He was actually surprised the mess still existed with how anal Victoria was to clean up food immediately after the mess was created. She always said something about ants wandering in the house.

Speaking of the human, where was she and Bluestreak? They weren't about to leave this mess for him to clean up!

Wheeljack turned around to face the living room and allowed a slow indulgent smile spread across his face. Today had been a little more exciting than what they had originally planned, so it wasn't a complete surprise to see the two youngsters sprawled out on the furniture fast asleep.

The older mech placed the containers he held on the table and approached Bluestreak first, who slept sprawled out in the recliner. He gently nudged the blond form. "Come on Blue. Turn off the generator 'fore you have to tap into your reserves."

The fake form let out a huge yawn and grumbled incoherently before fizzling out with a few pops of static as the ions used to configure the body broke apart. Wheeljack smiled at the sound of a quiet engine starting up slightly before powering down again as the younger mech settled down outside. He couldn't keep track of how many times he had to remind the Praxian to power down the holoform generator or run the risk of going into emergency stasis because of insufficient Energon levels. Letting the generator idle for too long consumed a lot of energy.

Wheeljack turned from the now empty chair and gave the same smile to the human stretched out on the couch. He approached her with the intention of doing the same as he had with Bluestreak and sending her to her room when he paused. There just peeking out from under the blanket that was draped over the woman was the barely visible top part of the smallest sparkling's head.

He stepped closer and carefully pulled back the blanket. The sparkling clicked slightly before rolling over and snuggling deeper into the woman's soft, and his smile grew as he spotted little spots of icing and vanilla ice cream on the tiny servos and around the sparkling's mouth. Recall must have been curious about the party foods and did what was becoming the little bitlet's specialty—copying. Though, perhaps the food hadn't been to his taste; that would explain how it ended up all over the kitchen.

A quick search around the room revealed that the Seekerlet was curled up on the window seat, little engine buzzing in deep recharge and throw blanket draped over him, and the engineer shook his head. He still couldn't believe there was an actual sparkling—let alone _two—_in their possession. Sparklings, or hatchlings as many here seemed to refer to them as, were a rare thing to behold ever since the war had begun.

The other Transformers in this dimension didn't create sparklings the way he had explained to Victoria earlier. They found the process, as both Wheeljack and Ratchet had said time and time again, archaic and messy. Carriers sometimes even went to extreme measures to make sure they were never sparked. However receiving a sparkling from the AllSpark was a completely different matter. It didn't involve carrying the new spark, then the new sparkling within the gestation chamber for little over two human years.

But the AllSpark had just stopped producing sparks before the war, as if it had known what was going to occur and refused to allow innocent lives be put into the world at the moment, but eventually it had created what was known as the last generation of sparks, to which Bumblebee and Bluestreak belonged to. Perhaps the AllSpark had known that the scout would be the one who was able to save it from Megatron. Wheeljack would never know as he didn't even pretend to know about supernatural things like that. All he knew was that the AllSpark wasn't just a cube that randomly created a spark. It was very picky over which hopeful couples or single parents were "approved" to raise that spark.

Subconsciously, he reached one hand out to touch the tips of his fingers to Victoria's hair. She was a very brave human to just accept responsibility for these two precious creatures even when the Seekerlet made it no secret that he didn't like any of them. Even if he and Bluestreak would be there to provide assistance, Wheeljack was finally starting to see why Optimus had had so much faith in her ability to adapt and why Prowl had so readily backed him up.

He had actually been awed at the way she had just accepted what had happened and continued on with her new life. It would be a lie to say that there had been no problems along the way. Puberty had been a period of touch and go for a little while, not to mention the other ups and downs along the way, but it had been nothing they couldn't handle. Victoria had even changed a little over the years, becoming a little more open with others and a little less serious than she had been the first time they had met. In a way, she sort of reminded him of Jazz, who was able to adapt to situations a lot quicker than most people because of his personality and position during the war.

Wheeljack didn't know what life had planned for her—this little human who was still a _baby_ compared to him—but he could knew she would get through it. She was already accepting responsibility that by all means should scare anyone if the way she was holding the sparkling so close said anything about the future role she would willingly step into.

"_Then again, that could just be the 'daddy' in me talking,"_ the mech thought with a chuckle as he gave a soft pat to Recall's helm and moved on to check on the Seekerlet who was tossing and turning on his sleep. The thought of being a "daddy" dredged up morose feelings, and Wheeljack shut away the thought with a shake of his head. Some things couldn't be changed, no matter how hard he wished it.

He had to stay focused on the present because not only did the Autobots as a whole need him, but more importantly so did his little family on Earth, especially if what he feared was true. He had thought long and hard on what would make a sparkling freak out the way Recall did earlier, and no matter what answer he had come up, none of them had been very good. It pained him to think that these little sparklings hadn't been living very happy lives, like they _should_ have been living, before Victoria had stumbled upon them. Wheeljack couldn't change many things no matter how many genius doohickeys or life changing gizmos he created, but he'd be damned if he allowed anything else to happen to these sparklings, Bluestreak, or Victoria.

The engineer glanced back into the kitchen and sighed. It looked like he would have to extend his role as "the responsible adult" for a little while longer and clean up the mess the children had neglected before drifting off into dream land. Woe was the life of an adult.

* * *

**AN:** Ah Wheeljack…you went all serious. :(

Also, when I started this story I didn't really have a firm grasp on how the whole "Transformer reproduction" thing would be explained. I've seen it done a few different ways and finally decided on two ways that made enough sense to me: a more "organic" way and the way through the AllSpark. The AllSpark one is pretty self-explanatory: you get a spark, you put it in a frame, and you're good to go. The organic way is a little more…complicated and confusing, which is why Wheeljack said it wasn't used very often. A spark comes from two mature sparks separating after merging; it develops in a carrier's spark chamber until it's able to survive on its own; then it buds off and travels down to the gestational chamber, which cannibalizes some of the carrier's protoform to form a sparkling protoform, which is removed through a C-section like operation. In my story, this is the process of sparkling making that helped inspire Shockwave. Confusing? Maybe. But that's why it's not used very often in Transformer society ;)

Bluestreak Translations (in order of when he said them)! If you happen to speak one of these three languages and I completely butchered it then I apologize. Translate Google did it :)

SPANISH: Esta torta es muy bueno. TRANSLATION: This cake is really good.  
FRENCH: Être jaloux parce que je ne suis toujours pas partager. TRANSLATION: Be jealous because I am still not sharing.  
ITALIAN: Nessun problema. Lasciati sorprendere dalla talenti. TRANSLATION: No problem. Be amazed by my talents.

Now, I have to go because I've got family visiting, but I wish everybody a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year (just in case I don't update before the year ends)!


	7. Coincidence? I Think Not!

_"Thinking"  
:Com Talk:  
_**~Bond Speech~**

* * *

A New Version of Reality

Chapter Five

Coincidence? I Think Not!

**It is only at the first encounter that a face makes its full impression on us. – Arthur Schopenhauer**

* * *

Recall onlined with a hiccup and a twitter. His optics shuttered for a moment as he took in the dark space he had woken up in. It wasn't scary though. It was actually kind of…cozy. He wiggled a little, chirruping when he bumped up against something soft, which moved a little against him before settling back down. Recall used one of his skinny fingers to poke it with a giggle before wiggling along the little tunnel of dark coziness.

Eventually he encountered a wall, feeling his way up it until he finally reached the end. With a beep, he stuck his head out of the tunnel to look around. Downwards was a cliff; upwards was the top of the room; left and right were two more walls. A twitter of disappointment came from him. This room was more boring than the other places he had been! Where were all the people?

And then he happened to glance in front of him. An excited series of beeps and clicks came from the tiny sparkling as he spotted his bestest friend in the whole wide universe curled up in front of the wall that he could see through. He wondered if his other bestest friend was okay. Surely he was; all he did was sleep, so he couldn't go anywhere. He just had to wait until their new friend went to get him. She'd make him feel better and not want to sleep so much, which meant he'd be able to play; she could even give him a name! Recall liked his new name. It was better than "spawn" or "runt" or "specimen" or some other big words that he didn't listen to half the time.

But he had other things to do at the moment. Like wake Star so they could go exploring! There was a lot of fun stuff to be played with. And they had to find the nice people; where did they go? Hopefully they'd be back soon; he wanted to play with them too! Especially the funny looking one. He wanted to let that one know that he'd play with him even if he did try to open his front and look at his pretty light.

Recall patted looked down at the pretty light and patted his chest before looking further down the cliff and then back up at where Star still slept. How would he get over there? Maybe he could climb down…

His planning was interrupted by the fact that he leaned too far over the cliff and his big head caused him to flip over. He landed heavily on his back and drew in a huge breath before releasing it in an equally huge gush. That hadn't been so bad, and he was on the floor now!

Oh, maybe he could use his legs like the big people did! Star could do it; well sort of, but that _was_ how he got on the seat over there. All he had to do was…roll…_over_…

He wiggled around as hard as he could, twittering in aggravation when his plan refused to work. Why couldn't he roll over? It was his big head wasn't it? He knew that thing would hold him back one day. He demanded to have a smaller head!

Finally, _finally_, he managed to put enough strength behind his wiggling and rolled over onto his belly. Speaking of his belly, what was that funny feeling? He'd never felt it before while he was in the tube thingy with Star and his other friend. He sighed and laid his head on the floor for a moment, all the energy expended on his efforts finally catching up to him. This was a lot of work. Why'd Star have to choose the farthest place to sleep?

Recall picked his head back up, put his spindly arms underneath his chest, and pushed up. He attempted to get his pedes under him and stand, but unfortunately that just took too much effort, and he wasn't a very patient little mechling. So he began to crawl like he had the night before, falling forward a few times as his arms unexpectedly gave out. But he persevered and was soon sitting in front of the ledge where Star was sleeping.

He called out to the Seekerlet with a series of clicks and beeps. No response.

Thinking that Star just couldn't hear him, Recall reached up and grabbed ahold of the blanket that was lying over the edge of the seat, pulling himself up after a couple of tries and grabbing the edge to keep him up on his shaky legs. He peeked over and gurgled happily when he saw a pair of red optics glaring at him. Star!

Recall reached out one hand and attempted to grab the other sparkling's hand. He had to get up so they could start playing!

Recall's very first memory had been of Star. He could remember seeing the Seekerlet, who had been tinier back then, curled up in his tube of pink liquid. He hadn't even realized he was being held by what he would later refer to as the "one-optic meanie" until he had reached out for Star with a happy squeal. Then the meanie had pulled on his springs and threw him into a tube of his own.

Anytime Recall woke up after that, he always looked over to see Star, and eventually the smaller sparkling had showed up. But Star had been Recall's friend first, and Recall knew the Seekerlet liked him the best. Why else would he follow after Recall had climbed out of the thingy they had been put in? And then help him when the nice people tried to take his spark? Of course, he didn't think they'd actually take his spark like the meanie always did to the others that didn't get put into tubes. They were too nice, and the funny one had looked really sad afterwards. Meanie had never looked sad.

Recall beeped and made a grabby motion with his hand. Star huffed and shuffled around, turning his back on the other sparkling. Recall twittered in confusion…maybe Star was still tired. Yeah, that had to be it! They had had an exciting night. He just needed a little encouragement to wake up.

Tiny movement under the covers caught the bright eyed sparkling's attention, and Recall tilted his head in thought. Star always jumped up when someone touched the little bumps on his back…

A screech filled the room, and Victoria ricocheted off the couch without a second thought. With the blanket gripped in one hand, she sleepily twirled around to find the owner of the screech. The sound of innocently amused giggles helped her find the culprit: a very annoyed Seekerlet that was making every sound possible to convey his annoyance while glaring down at a giggling sparkling.

Victoria yawned and rubbed her eyes with the heel of her free hand as she made her way over to the two, unconsciously dragging the blanket behind her. "What are you two doing up so early?"

Recall twirled around at the sound of her voice, losing his grip on the blanket he held and falling on his little behind. But that didn't faze him a bit. He just gurgled and reached both arms out to her. She returned the laugh with one of her own and picked him up with a little grunt. "Nothing can bring you down can it little man?"

He smiled and cooed while craning his neck upwards. Victoria laughed again as he clumsily rubbed his little nose against her, just as they had been doing the night before. Right before the mechling had commandeered the cake and ice cream. "I'm not falling for your cute act. What did you do to make Star scream?"

The sparkling tilted his head to the side with a beep and wrapped his legs and arms around her before snuggling into the dip of her neck with a series of soft coos. She resisted for a fraction of a second before returning the snuggling, giving the bouncy springs on his head a little kiss. "You are just too adorable. But that won't get you out of trouble."

Star huffed at the pair and turned his back to them, figuring their cuddle session had made them forget about him. He shrieked and crawled backwards until he was able to cling to Victoria's waist, hissing once at the face that had just appeared in the window. Recall tilted his backwards to chirp in question while Victoria just scowled and leaned forward to open the window a bit. "Wheeljack stop scaring the kids!"

Wheeljack's head fins flashed in apology. "Sorry bitlets. I was just seeing what you were screaming about already. But it's a good thing you're awake. That way we can get your little tanks filled and the checkup shall begin!"

"That's the first time I've ever heard any of you guys use 'checkup' in a positive way," Victoria commented as she shifted Recall's weight from one hip to the other and comfortingly patted Star on the head.

"That's because Ratchet isn't around to administer the checkups," Wheeljack answered, waving a hand at the sparklings. Star hissed again and unconsciously huddled closer to the woman; Recall giggled and enthusiastically waved back. "You guys get the fun…I can't really say I'm a doctor because I was never given the proper training. But I know enough to give you guys a checkup!"

"That probably makes you a nurse."

"Sounds kinky." The engineer paused. "Wait a minute…this probably isn't the situation to be making those kinds of jokes. Anyway! There are two containers of Energon for them stored in your refrigerator. Make sure they drink most of it."

"You're storing Energon in my refrigerator now?" Victoria questioned as she moved into the kitchen. Or tried to; Star was making it difficult to walk as he continued to cling to her. Funny how the Seekerlet's attitude towards her had taken a complete one-eighty due to Wheeljack's accidental scare. "I thought Energon was harmful to humans. What if it's giving off radiation and contaminating my milk?"

"Energon is harmful if it is directly consumed, enters the human body through some other type of orifice (like the eyes or nose), or makes direct skin contact, which may cause first to second degree chemical burns in extreme cases or mild itching and skin irritation in cases of brief contact. While it might exude some radiation, it's nowhere near enough to contaminate the food in your refrigerator. I should know; I tested it out years ago and neither you nor your family is walking around with two heads because of it."

"I feel so much better knowing you'd be willing to poison me without my knowledge," she yelled back at him after entering the kitchen. Recall did a short mimic of her yell while Star glared at them both, his claw-like fingers digging into the human's skin for a moment. "What would you have done if I did sprout another head?"

"Called the experiment a failure and moved on to other things," Wheeljack answered as he crouched down at the kitchen window. His sudden appearance made the trio inside jump, and Recall clicked at the engineer as if scolding him like Victoria had. The engineer found the scolding amusing and showed it through his brightly lit facial fins. "It'll save Perceptor a lot of time when he finally lands and gets sucked into wanting to know every little thing about humans. Maybe it'll even save some humans some grief from being the subjects of his observations."

Victoria shook her head and refused to comment. Instead she carefully placed Recall on a kitchen chair, where he sat legs swinging in the air and big head barely rising above the edge of the table, steered Star to another chair, and finally opened the refrigerator to find two containers that were definitely not there the night before. She reached in and grabbed one, twirling the green container around carefully and running a finger along the melted seam of it. "Oh how creative of you. You took those plastic watering cans and made bottles out of them."

"Pretty good, right?"

"They're ugly and very shabbily made."

"…this is payback for the Energon thing isn't it?"

Victoria gave him a sweet smile and placed the first bottle of Energon in front of Star. The Seekerlet gave it a long hard stare as she turned to Recall, who happily grabbed for his. "Hold on-" She sighed when the sparkling began to hack on the Energon that spilled up his nose instead of into his mouth. "He eats like Bluestreak does—just shoves it in his mouth without a second thought. Except it didn't make it to his mouth this time."

"It wasn't like that before he knew of cookies," Wheeljack attempted to defend the Praxian while Victoria carefully wiped the liquid off the sparkling with a damp washcloth. "Cookies are very addictive. They make good mechs do crazy things. I find myself more interested in food of the sour-tasting persuasion, but to each their own I guess. Speaking of which, I think I'll swing into town soon to replenish my monthly supply of Warheads."

The woman ignored him for a moment as she picked Recall up and got him situated in her lap after sitting down in the chair he previously occupied. He clapped his hands together with an excited twitter when she held the makeshift bottle his lips. "Now just take it slowly, okay? It isn't gonna vanish into thin air just because you don't drink it all in one big gulp. See how Star's drinking his? He's such a big boy." She winced as the Seekerlet spit up a glob of Energon with a hacking cough after filling his mouth with too much of it. "Well he was doing a good job. You need any help over there Star?"

Star shook his negatively and with a huff stuck the nozzle of the "bottle" back into his mouth. Victoria shrugged and looked down at the sparkling eagerly sucking down his breakfast. He looked back up at her with big, bright blue optics, making little noises as he patted one of his hands against the one she held the bottle with, and Victoria's small smile made him grin widely, allowing a small trickle of Energon to escape from his mouth.

"Bluestreak says your warm and fuzzy feelings are beginning to overpower him and make him feel like a femme. Well, he didn't say the last part, but I figured it was doing that."

Trust Wheeljack to break such a cute moment with one of his jokes. The human turned to glare out the window at the mech. "I'll bring them out when they're done Wheeljack."

"That feels like a cold dismissal," Wheeljack said, looking back at her with bright, almost-innocent optics. "Are you _rejecting _me Vicky? I promise to change my ways and tell you the next time I use you for a potentially dangerous experiment."

"I'll bring them out later," she repeated while shifting Recall in her arms so that she could reach over to Star and wipe away some of the Energon left over from the Seekerlet's earlier coughing fit. "Your 'witty' humor isn't needed right now."

"Fine then; I see how it's going to be!" Wheeljack said with mock offense as he stood up from the window. "No one needs Wheeljack for Wheeljack. I'm not even fully appreciated for cleaning the house, which you didn't notice!"

Even though she knew he wasn't really mad at her, Victoria still felt a stab of guilt as she listened to the mech walk away. The guilt was almost immediately swept away by Bluestreak, who sent her a small pulse of reassurance. With a sigh, she turned back to Recall, who was strangely shuttering and unshuttering his optics as if he was suddenly sleepy. But that didn't make any sense, since the sparkling had just been bursting with excited energy. "Hey, you okay little guy?"

He released the end of the bottle and turned his head away from it, a clear sign that he was full, before opening his mouth in a big yawn and cuddling into her with a tired click. Victoria might have dismissed it because she had babysat young children occasionally while growing up, and it wasn't uncommon for them to fall asleep in her arms after consuming a meal, but it was too much of a coincidence for Star to be displaying the same response and almost falling asleep in his chair. "Wheeljack!"

Bluestreak was instantly by the Star's side, preventing the Seekerlet from falling out of the chair and reassuring the increasingly worried human. "It's okay! Wheeljack just told me I should come in here and help you, so I'm guessing he knew this would happen. I'm sure they're perfectly fine and will wake up soon. There's no reason to get- Vicky! Wait up; Star's harder to carry than Recall is!"

Victoria ignored Bluestreak's call as she stomped through the house with Recall cradled in her arms and out the back door towards the barn. Wheeljack peeked around the edge of the door before ducking quickly back in after seeing the impending anger raging towards him. "Wheeljack! What did you do to these sparklings?"

He carefully glanced back out and danced out of the way as the human marched into the barn between his legs to stand in front of him with a scowl. "Just give me a chance to explain before you go all Ratchet on me!"

"You have ten seconds," Victoria said, shifting the child her arms around to get a better grip as he unconsciously wrapped his legs around her waist.

"Maybe you should stand over here. You know, where there are fewer things within arm's distance that you could throw at me?"

"Nine. Eight."

"Okay, okay!" Wheeljack said, desperately waving his hands to stop her angry countdown. "You literally meant ten seconds. I get that now. But you know, ten seconds isn't really enough time for anyone to explain-"

"Five. _Four."_

"I put a small dose of sedative in their Energon last night!"

"What?!" Victoria shrieked as Bluestreak slowly entered the barn, Star carefully cradled in his servo. "You put a _sedative_ in a _baby's_ food?"

"How else was I going to be able to give them a thorough examination? You saw how Recall reacted last night; if I had attempted to do that again while he was online, he would have freaked out!" Wheeljack knelt down to put himself near eye level with the human, who was now glancing between him with anger and the sparkling in her arm with worry. "I swear on my spark that I would _never _harm either of them. But it's obvious that these two have been through something that left a big enough impression to make them fear exposing their sparks; that's not normal for anyone. I don't want them to have bad memory fluxes when I'm trying to make sure they're okay."

Victoria stared back into the engineer's dark blue optics with severe grey eyes. "Wheeljack, you never answered my question from last night. If a sparkling doesn't normally respond the way Recall did when their sparks are exposed, then what could have made him respond that way?"

Off to the side, Bluestreak watched the pair in silence, his door-wings jittering up and down in slight agitation. He gently stroked Star's wing nubs as Wheeljack answered. "You've already figured out the answer to that question; I can tell. That's why I _really_ need to do these examinations. I have to make sure that they haven't been…damaged."

Wheeljack held out a hand, and Victoria took the hint and stepped up into it. She wobbled a bit as the mech stood up and walked over to his work table, where he deposited his passengers beside a clean blue tarp that was laid out. The brunette glanced down at it as Bluestreak walked up and laid Star onto it. "How long are they going to be out?"

"Long enough for me to examine them," the engineer answered cryptically while gesturing for her to place Recall beside the Seekerlet. "Like I said last night, medics have to do hands on examinations with sparklings who haven't fully developed their medical ports. That means it's gonna take a little longer than the quick checkups with Blue. Plus, I didn't want one of them coming back online while I was examining the other. We all saw how strongly Star reacted last night."

Victoria nodded and stepped back to watch the mech pick up a datapad he had placed on the table beside them and start scrolling through it. "You ever examined a sparkling?"

"Nope," he said, a little bit of his usual humor returning in an attempt to lighten the situation. "But there's a first time for everything." Seeing that the human didn't appear very amused, Wheeljack sighed. "How about this? You guys can use this time to go and find the pod that these two landed in because sparklings don't have the ability transform into one and fly through space. They can't transform into anything yet with their underdeveloped T-cogs, assuming they're the age that I figure they are. Maybe you can find some clue as to where they came from. And then stop for lunch for or something. There's no rush to get back here."

Victoria glanced at Bluestreak, who nodded in agreement, and sighed. It was obvious that both Autobots weren't about to let her stand there and worry about whatever Wheeljack may or may not find in his inspections. "Fine. Me and Blue will go and find the pod. I'm pretty sure I can get back to where I found them at last night. But you better make sure they're completely healthy. No shortcuts!"

"You're never going to let that go are you?" Wheeljack responded with a laugh as Bluestreak lost the almost unnatural frown that had occupied his features since stepping into the barn. "It was just one small virus, and it's not like it would have killed Blue!"

"Maybe not, but he had a stutter for an entire month before you finally gave in and rescanned him," she countered while stepping into the hand Bluestreak offered her. She motioned to be held up to the engineer's face and carefully leaned over to place a hand on his blast mask. "And I noticed the house; I notice a lot of things you do. You take good care of me and Blue. I'm positive you'll do the same for these two."

Wheeljack's fins lit up in silent appreciation, and he waved at them as the duo exited the barn. He turned back to the pair of sparklings and with an almost a sad sigh resumed scrolling through the contents of the datapad. "Alright little sparks. Let's get this started." He paused and glanced behind him to make sure the others had left before continuing in a low voice. "I'm gonna have to tell Ratchet that there's finally someone out there who can possibly give him a run for his money. I'm starting to see why humans came up with the term 'mama bear.' It's very appropriate…why did an image of Ratchet in a bear suit suddenly pop into my head?"

**)(**

Victoria rested her head gently against the glass of the window and stared out as the trees passed by in a blur. She heard the gear shift change gears and the car sped up, making the blurs whiz by faster. "You know, we're not in any hurry. You don't have to go a hundred miles an hour."

"But I wanna," Bluestreak whined through the radio, the needle on his speedometer inching upward as his engine growled smoothly. "The road is empty, it goes on for miles, and did I mention there's no one in sight? Do you know how rare that is even if we do live in nearly the middle of nowhere? If someone isn't tailing my bumper, then the road twists too much. This is perfect!"

"I know," Victoria said with a grin as the adrenaline Bluestreak felt seeped through their bond. "And I hate to ruin your fun, but we passed the spot I was at last night about ten minutes ago."

Bluestreak screeched to a stop, his tires leaving marks about five feet long. Victoria was flung forward and she yelped as the seatbelt Bluestreak instinctively tightened bit into her neck. "You didn't have to stop that quickly."

"Sorry!" the mech squeaked. He quickly performed a three-point turn and backtracked at a more decent speed. "I didn't mean to do that. Did I hurt you? I did, didn't I? I'm so sorry! It won't happen again. I'll never speed when you're in the car, no matter how tempting it might be…okay maybe just a little over the speed limit because humans are so _slow._ Seriously, why would you force someone to go forty-five when they can clearly go seventy without a problem? Is it really going to hurt anyone? I mean, I understand going slow when there's other things around, but I scanned the area and there's nothing within ten miles of us."

"Blue," Victoria calmly stated when he slid to a stop on the side of the road, yet continued to complain about the unfair speed limits. "You've gotta let me out of the car."

"Oh!"

The seatbelt hugging her to the seat slackened, and she took the chance to jump out of the car. Rubbing at the soreness of her neck, Victoria stood on the side of the road and scanned the trees in front of her. "Alright, I'm pretty sure this is the place. All the trees look the same, but I distinctly remember this one because it has a sort of hole in it. Of course it was getting dark and what I saw could have been shadows."

The sound of clicks and gears shifting caught her attention, and she twisted around to see Bluestreak's armor sliding into place as he crouched in the middle of the road. "Bluestreak! What the hell are you doing? You have to transform before anyone sees you."

"There's no one around," he insisted while gesturing vaguely. "I told you I scanned the area. There's nothing but little wood critters and there deeper in the trees."

"Bluestreak!" Victoria huffed as he ignored her and wiggled himself between the trees. "How do you even expect to make it through all the trees in that form? You're too big!"

"But I'm really limited when I use the holoform. It's perfect for blending in with humans but really not useful when tracking down tech." Bluestreak paused, and Victoria watched him fiddle with something on his arm. "There we go! Wow…how come we didn't notice this thing falling from the sky last night? It's huge. Or maybe I need to just adjust this so that it's not zoomed in…"

"What is that?"

"Something 'Jack installed before we left. It's supposed to be able to track down anything giving off a Cybertronian signal, electromagnetic fields, and other stuff like that. You see, escape pods are normally programmed to send out a frequency once they land. That way a rescue party wouldn't have any problems locating it. If you don't want that frequency to go off it's really easy to turn it off."

"But wouldn't that attract the attention of…something non-Cybertronian? Like a human satellite?"

"Well yeah, if that satellite was pointed in the right direction, at the right time, and kept an eye on it as it fell through the atmosphere. Human's just don't have the right tech yet to keep track of _our_ technology. Wheeljack was able to make it seem like we were stray space junk that burned up in the atmosphere when we came to Earth."

The pair walked in silence for a few moments, Bluestreak waving his arm around while Victoria looked out for anything that looked vaguely familiar. "If you guys were able to cover your tracks after landing on Earth, then how did that group of humans find you?"

Bluestreak tripped on a fallen tree, clumsily grabbing at the other trees surrounding him and wincing as a few branches scratched against door-wings. Victoria patted his pede as she felt the same pain he did. "That might have been…me and Smokey's fault. You have to understand that the first place we lived in was freakishly boring. There was absolutely _nothing _to do no one exciting. Just a bunch of old people who hated Wheeljack for making a excitement in their lives with outgoing personality and explosive tendencies. But every summer their grandkids would come to visit, and me and Smokey learned that they would sneak out every weekend and go drag racing. So we thought we'd go out and have a little fun one weekend. That weekend sort of multiplied until it was every weekend and sneaking behind Wheeljack's back because we couldn't let him come without the risk of him showing off and running everyone away.

"Anyway, one night there was an accident during one of the races. A guy took a turn too quickly and flipped his car. Smokescreen had been right behind him and the only way he could avoid it was jumping over it. He was just too close and going too fast to do anything else, and it was really instinctual for him to transform to get out of the way. Long story short, one of the kids got a picture of him with their phone, it went viral before Wheeljack had a chance to stop it—but he did stop it eventually!—and we had to leave. It was in-between moves that that group of humans attacked us, so Wheeljack concluded that it was because of the picture that they found us. Of course, we had to go through the motions of finding less flashy and more 'normal' alt-modes after that too."

"I thought you guys didn't know how they found you."

"Wheeljack said not to make you worried about pictures that are no longer on the internet." Bluestreak looked down and flinched at the sight of the woman's glare. "I didn't lie! I just…omitted some of the truth."

"Whatever," Victoria said with a sigh before smirking and carefully bumping up against his pede. "But look at you. You're more of a bad boy than I thought you were. Drag racing behind Wheeljack's back and lying to my face? I'm sorry—'omitting the truth' to my face? Those sound more like things the Twins would happily do."

"You can't really stay a saint when you're friends with the Twins and one of your role models growing up is Jazz. You just learn to hide it by being cute." To prove his point he stopped long enough to give her a charming smile and wiggled his kibble, making the brunette giggle. "It also helps that Praxians are one of the top three most desirable frames back before the war. We ranked just below the Seekers and Polyhexians because Seekers are more 'exotic' and most Polyhexians have very enjoyable personalities like Jazz. And they're also very—how would the humans say it?—_flexible."_

"Ew." Bluestreak laughed at the disturbed expression on his friend's face. "Let's not talk about that."

"But it's a very natural thing."

"Don't start sounding like Wheeljack with 'innocent' explanations that are started just to see me squirm."

The mech's laughs eventually died to snickers and the two continued through the trees with only a light conversation popping up every now and then. Occasionally they had to stop because of Bluestreak's door-wings getting caught on branches or Victoria having to dig a twig or rock out of her sneakers. But after nearly an hour of walking, Bluestreak's arm eventually led them to the place they were looking for.

Victoria had to stop and gawk at the damage the pod had done on its touchdown. Of course with the speeds and the heat it must have picked up while free-falling through the atmosphere, it had been bound to knock over a couple of trees and burn the vegetation around it. With the damage she saw, it would have been safe to assume that anyone within a twenty mile radius would have heard it. "How did you not hear this last night? It must have made a loud enough noise for you to hear!"

"Well, you have to remember that we were in Wheeljack's barn and he had been working with power tools at the time you said it would have landed. Plus I wouldn't be surprised if the trees didn't dampen the noise a little. They're pretty dense in this area. We did feel a slight tremor though if that makes you feel better. We just wrote it off as a small seismic anomaly because we feel those pretty often and it's never anything serious."

Victoria nodded and listened to Bluestreak babble off onto the topic of earthquakes, quickly followed by other natural disasters. She jumped over the shallow ditch that had been created when the pod had slid along the ground before stopping and went to examine the outside as Bluestreak stuck his head into the little ship. "So…what are we going to do with it?"

"Take it back with us," was the mech's simple question as he stood back up and scanned the area around them. "That's weird. It's picking up traces of three EM fields. Maybe it's just a glitch; that happens pretty often with Wheeljack's prototypes." He stopped to stare hard down at the new device implanted into his arm. "Right before it explodes…"

"Stop that," the woman ordered while running her hand along Cybertronic symbols the size of her hand that were embellished into the metal of the pod. "I think we give him too hard of a time when it comes to his things exploding. Not everything he makes automatically explodes."

"Yeah, sometimes he has to make it explode." Bluestreak glanced back at her and sighed at the glare being sent his way. "Don't be that way! He makes fun of it too. Actually he's the one that brings it up half the time. It's like his catchphrase or something. 'Need something that makes your life easier but explodes without any warning? Wheeljack is the mech for the job!'" He smiled at little bit of laughter seeping through their bond and how Victoria tried to hid her smile by biting her lip and stepping further behind the pod. "You can't hide that you think it's funny. I can feel it!"

The Praxian's smile fell at the sudden worry and anger that came from Victoria and quickly made his way over to her. "What did you find?" The human wordlessly pointed up to the symbol she had found, and Bluestreak had to crouch down to wipe away the dirt and pine needles obstructing his view of it. Once he could see it though, the reaction was immediate; his door-wings shot up into a tense position, a scowl made its way onto his features, and the servo he had used to brush away the dirt clenched tightly. _"Decepticon."_

"Those-those," Victoria stuttered as anger began to take over the previous bit of worry that she had felt. She turned to him and pointed angrily at the faction emblem. "Are they the ones who did that to Recall and Star? Made them fear what they shouldn't? I swear, if I ever get my hands on one of them-"

"They'll squish you without a second thought," Bluestreak finished harshly, quickly rising from his crouch and poking around the inside of the pod once mroe. "Unless you found one that likes to 'play' with his victims before killing them. We can't take it back with us now because there's no telling what hidden weapons or other things have been added. It's too big of a risk that a second unknown beacon might come on and lead a pack of Decepticons to us, so we have to get rid of this thing before they come looking for it, if they aren't already. Emergency beacon…okay good. That's been disabled now. Now for the self-destruct protocols…"

Victoria rose out of her anger long enough to look at him incredulously. "Self-destruct protocols? Now I know blowing something up would definitely draw the attention of others, especially when you make it explode in the middle of a _flammable area."_

"Which is why it'll explode up in the air," he answered confidently without rising out of the ship. "Hold on and I'll show you how…there we go!"

Later she would tell herself that she really shouldn't have been surprised when the pod began to collapse on itself as the surface area of it began to break apart into tiny squares and shift around like how the Autobots would when shifting from one form to the other. Once it was done collapsing, Bluestreak proudly held a basketball sized pod out for the awed Victoria to see. "There's a reason why the humans from your dimension call us 'Transformers.' I wish you could have seen Cybertron before the war. You would have so amazed by the buildings because some of them actually changed every day, and-"

"Bluestreak, that thing is rigged to explode."

"Oh yeah!" Bluestreak pulled his arm back and chucked the "basketball" pod as far into the air as he could, which was pretty far for a mech his size. The only proof of the impending explosion was a small flash of light and a light unnatural breeze from that general direction. "Now that that's taken care of, I need to check the area for anything else that might draw a Decepticon to this area."

"Do you need me to do anything?" Victoria asked as the mech began to prowl around the area.

"No," he answered without looking up from his arm. "You can do whatever you want. I shouldn't be long."

_"'You can do whatever you want,'"_ Victoria repeated to herself while watching Bluestreak quietly and efficiently scan the area like the trained soldier she sometimes forgot he was. _"And what exactly would that entail? Sitting on the sidelines and twiddling my thumbs? Because there is just _so _much to do in the middle of nowhere."_

"Why don't you look for some trails or something?" Bluestreak suggested when he felt her cynicism even if he couldn't hear her thoughts. "A trail would be a lot easier to traverse than the trees again."

"Fine, but I know you're just doing this to make me feel useful." The brunette paused before leaving the new clearing. "Thank you."

He smiled at her briefly and went back to scanning while she vanished into the trees. Victoria walked through woods more easily then she had the night before, no longer worried about getting lost in the light and with Bluestreak not far from her; it also helped that she was actually dressed for hiking. Either way, it was easier and less stressful and soon she found herself stepping out onto a dirt road.

The raven haired woman looked both ways down the seemingly abandoned back road. She hadn't even known there was such a road that cut through the dense woods. She walked down it a few feet and paused. "Hey Blue! I think I found a road, but I don't know where it-"

She stopped as the familiar sound of a car engine caught her attention, and she quickly stepped off the road to avoid being potentially ran over. An old blue truck chugalugged around the corner ahead of her and slowly made its way down the road. Victoria stepped further off the road in hopes of not being seen but had no such luck as the truck stopped directly in front of her. She backed up further as the driver opened his door and hopped out of the cab.

"Well howdy," he said with a smirk as he watched the woman's careful expression break into one of surprise. "Didn't think I'd ever get the chance to see you again after yesterday."

"I kind of hoped we wouldn't," Victoria responded, looking the man up and down and taking another step back as the man took a step towards her. "People don't usually take well to being held at gunpoint, almost attacked, and ran back to their car in fear of ending up on the next episode of _48 Hours_ when the man they deliver a package to has a mental breakdown."

The man laughed as if what she said was truly a joke and casually whipped off his square glasses to clean them with the bottom edge of his shirt. "Sorry about that. I was having a…off day. I'm James by the way." He held out his hand as if for her to shake it, but when Victoria crossed her arms to make it obvious that she wouldn't, he retracted the gesture. "Right. I wouldn't be that trusting after what happened either."

"I'm not by myself," Victoria informed him abruptly while staring blankly at him. "My friend's just slow, but he should catch up soon."

"Oh good! Is this the friend that was 'sick' yesterday?"

"As a matter of fact it is. He just had one of those twenty-four hour bugs that pop up every once in a while. We thought a quick hike—some fresh air and all that—would do him some good."

"You're probably right." James gestured vaguely in the direction behind him. "I guess I'm just a little surprised to see you here instead of on one of the hiking trails a little further north. Makes a casual hike a lot easier."

"We like roughing it."

They stared at each other awkwardly for a few seconds, openly assessing the other person. "So, what brings _you _out here?"

James was saved from answering as the sound of clumsy running came from behind Victoria, and soon a familiar blond was bursting out of the trees and rushing to cling to the woman. "Vicky, you walk too fast! I thought I had lost you until you heard you talking to someone. Who's your new friend? Hi there! I'm Blake!"

The older man looked thoroughly surprised to see Bluestreak, obviously assuming that Victoria hadn't been telling the truth about someone else being with her, but recovered quickly and plastered a fake smile on his face. "I'm James…nice to meet you."

"Sorry, I don't shake hands," Bluestreak explained when James held out his hand. "Germs and stuff. Did you know that your hand is the dirtiest thing on Earth? I mean, you touch _everything_ with your hands, and most soaps don't even get them clean."

James looked down at his hand in a whole new light, flipping them over to look at them from every angle. "Wow, I didn't know that…little piece of information. I'll be sure to clean them more often when I get back to the house."

Bluestreak hummed, and Victoria tried hard not to flinch as a sudden shock came from his holoform. Seeing the flinch, Bluestreak carefully unwrapped his arms from around her and settled for gripping one of her hands. "Be sure to use hot water and don't touch anything immediately afterwards. Germs find it easier to cling to wet things. Well I think we should be going; lots of things to do today. Like cleaning the house, and doing laundry, and getting ready for company and-"

"What's the rush?" James asked with a little shrug. "You deserve a little more time to recover from being sick. I'm sure your company would agree."

"No, we _really_ need to go," the mech in disguise emphasized with a wince and a tightened grip on Victoria's hand. "Plus we don't want anyone to come across our car and think it's been abandoned."

"Alright," the older man said with confusion as he watched the blond twist the brunette around and quickly hike back into the trees. "Maybe I'll see you around?"

"Don't count on it!" Victoria managed to yell back before she completely lost sight of the man. When she figured they far enough away to not be heard, she immediately turned on Bluestreak. "Bluestreak what is going on? Why does your holoform keep shocking me?"

Bluestreak visibly winced and gripped her hand even tighter. "Remind me that it's never a good idea to send your real self in one direction while your holoform goes in the other. In fact, I think I know now why Wheeljack advises only having it activated when you're parked in your alt-mode. It's so hard to keep track of things when you're looking through two different perspectives, and it's even harder to keep the holoform grounded. It's a real strain; I think I might have broken something in the generator."

"If it's hurting you then turn it off! I can find my way back to you."

"I don't want to risk you getting lost and me having to come back in to find you."

"You are so stubborn!"

"I get it from you."

Victoria smirked at that and rolled her eyes as "Blake" led the way through the trees, his image wavering every once in a while and shocking her the whole way.

**)(**

As Bluestreak and Victoria had re-entered the woods, James had watched them leave with a suspicious glare. Once they were completely gone, he returned to his truck and grabbed the tools he needed before wading in after the pair. He would have to work quickly if those two were wandering around in the woods; he didn't want to risk them coming across his little discovery and calling the local news to have their brief five minutes of fame.

After taking the thing back home last night, James had come to realization that in his rush to procure the living alien he had completely forgotten about the transport! So he had woken up early that morning, assured that the alien was provided for and wouldn't die or escape while he was gone, gathered some supplies, and headed out to bring that pod home. If the alien he had found was anything like N.B.E 01 or any of the other N. he had seen, it would be intriguing to find out what these robots traverse in, seeing as they could essentially transform into vehicles to begin with.

He had come prepared to confront an agent from S7 or another inhabitant of the middle of nowhere like himself, but when he had pulled up in front of a woman on the side of the road, he had been honestly surprised to find out that it was the same woman from the day before: Victoria.

In all honesty, James had been a little let down at first. Her appearance so close to the site of the clearing couldn't have been coincidental, and that meant that she must have been working for that organization, which meant he would have to get rid of her before she reported back and then find a new place to live just to make sure no one else from Sector 7 would find him. And he was actually beginning to like the place he lived in.

The boy that had suddenly appeared had probably been the only thing to save the girl. James felt like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders when he realized that she hadn't been lying at all—she really _did_ have a friend, and he _did_ look to be recovering from a recent illness if his twitchiness and paleness said anything. So he had let them run off to continue their young lives. No need to let the innocent suffer from his rash decisions.

Now he cursed as his wheelbarrow got stuck on the root of a tree. His plan was simple. Strip the alien transport of anything useful and haul butt before the alien at home woke up and decided to do something fishy. It was a full proof plan because he had spent the night before timing the thing between its moments of consciousness and sleep. It didn't wake up very often…actually it exhibited the sleeping pattern of a newborn…

James shook his head and with a grunt pushed the wheelbarrow over its obstacle and continued forward. He couldn't start thinking of that…_thing_ as a child or he'd never get anything accomplished. They were _robots;_ they couldn't have children! It wasn't biologically possible—hence the title _Non-Biological Extraterrestrial_.

No, whatever he had must have been disguised to seem like a child to dissuade enemies. It could probably whip out a gun from nowhere and kill everyone in a room with one fatal swoop. James wasn't going to be fooled by their clever transforming disguises! He was going to use what he had to find a way to defeat those things; not make a car or toaster oven like Sector 7 had so foolishly done with the information they had discovered.

James was so lost in his mental bashing of the organization he had previously been proud of being a part of that he didn't notice the clearing he finally walked into was missing one very important detail until he walked up on the empty crater.

"No, no, no," he repeated several times as he abandoned his tools and haphazardly rushed down to the center of the crater. "What happened to it? It couldn't have been taken so quickly. You can't leave with something that size without being seen or at least leaving a trail behind!"

He kicked around the dirt and yelled in anger when his actions didn't magically dig up the pod that had been there the night before. When the man finally finished his tantrum, he trekked back out of the crater and resolutely sat on the edge. He should have found a way to return earlier. The things he could have done with that tech; he didn't even want to think about it now! All it did was dredge up a headache.

As James sat and attempted to rid himself of the headache, a sudden thought flashed through his head, making him freeze on the spot. Could it be mere coincidence that the two he had met some minutes before just _happened_ to be wandering around in the woods?

"Coincidence?" James snorted, standing up with a grunt and dusting his pants off as he turned to leave. "I don't believe in such things. You don't see the same woman twice in two days because of _coincidence."_

_"Though she may not be part of Sector 7 as I previously thought," _he thought begrudgingly as he traveled back to his truck. _"Members of Sector 7 aren't as…subtle as she has been. They tend to travel in packs, flashing their 'power' around when they apprehend what they are after."_

So it was perhaps she was on her own, just like he was. That was fine with him. The woman and her friend could pretend they knew what they were doing as they stripped the mechanism in their possession because he had something better.

And she wasn't going to get her little hands on it if he had any say about it.

**)(**

"I'm telling you Bluestreak. There was a reason why he just happened to be on that back road when we were, and it wasn't for some innocent hiking trip."

"I think you're reading too much into it Vicky," Bluestreak sighed through the speaker as the disgruntled woman huffed in her seat. "He couldn't have possibly known about the pod. We would have never known it was there if you hadn't brought home two sparklings, and we're only an hour away from the crash site. From what you say, he lives even further away, and it was ten at night. What are the odds of him being there—at the same time you were—to see it crash to Earth?"

Victoria bit her bottom lip in thought and glared at the radio for lack of anything else to glare at. "I don't know! I don't have all the answers. But he knew something; I could see it in the way he looked at me."

"Maybe he just took his medication this morning," the mech suggested while turning into their driveway. "You said he was a little crazy yesterday. Maybe he realized what he had done and took something to keep himself from hurting anyone. Humans have medicine for that."

"No, because he still had that crazed look." She sighed as Bluestreak came to a stop and waited patiently for her to get out. "Bluestreak, do you know anything that goes by the name of 'Sector 7'? He kept saying something about it, accusing me of being a part of it, and some Simmons guy."

"Mmm," the Autobot hummed in thought. "The names sound familiar, but I can't think of anything specific. Maybe they're from TV or something. Like a popular crime show. That reminds me, I'm totally missing that marathon of _Law & Order_ today."

"I said no more crime shows," Victoria scolded lightly with a light smack to his dashboard before climbing out. She waited until the mech stood beside her in all his door-wing glory before continuing. "I don't want you coming up with even more ludicrous theories of what happens to me when I don't come home on time."

"But those shows are addictive, and entertaining, and cool, and interesting, and somewhat educational at times. Would you rather me watch stuff like _Doctor Who_ and theorize which alien race will invade the UK every Christmas?"

Victoria pursed her lips in mock thought as they made their way over to Wheeljack's barn, where sounds of squeals and giggles could be heard. "Alright point taken. Just cut back on them. Your theories really are becoming ridiculous."

"I won't make any promises," was the mech's reply as he pretended to stealthily peek through the crack in the barn door to see what was happening inside. Victoria shook her head at him and smiled when he started to giggle. "I think Wheeljack's found another apprentice."

Victoria mimicked Bluestreak actions and put a hand to her mouth to keep from laughing out loud. While she could barely see the top of Wheeljack's table from her current angle, she could see enough. Wheeljack sat patiently in his Transformer sized chair and talked as Star held up random objects he found on the table. "That is what will one day be a transistor. A transistor is used to amplify and switch electronic signals and electrical power, and I'm currently working on making it applicable to some of my future projects, but that's taking a little work since I have to find the materials big enough to–hey. Where are you going bitlet?"

Recall screeched as he rolled over the edge of the table and freefell for a klick before Wheeljack casually reached over and caught him. The engineer carefully put the sparkling back on the table and out of the paralyzed Victoria's sight, though she could clearly hear Recall clicking and beeping in immense enjoyment. "That was funny the first dozen times you did it, but I think we're overdoing your new form of fun. What would Vicky say if she caught us?"

"First she'd ask why the hell you let him do that to begin with!" Victoria shouted as she ran across the room to them. "And really Wheeljack? _A dozen times?"_

"Er, overexaggeration?" Wheeljack answered sheepishly while holding his hand out to catch the giggling sparkling once more. He caught the glare she was sending him and shrugged. "Oh come on Vicky! Give me a little more credit than that. I wouldn't have let him do it if I didn't think I could catch him each time." As she continued to glare at him, the engineer flashed the lights framing his face in mock disgruntlement. "You're going to be one of those fun sucking parents aren't you?"

"And you're going to be the irresponsible uncle that shows up every six months to make the parent's life miserable and encourage the children to be reckless while giving them false hopes and dreams."

Bluestreak glanced between the two as a glaring contest commenced. He shrugged and carefully shuffled past them to lean down and speak to the sparklings. "Were you two good while we were gone?" Recall chirruped with a smile and flopped over onto his back. "Um hmm. Did you have fun?" Star made a shrugging motion and picked up a new object, gesturing between it and Recall's springy "hair" with a knowing beep. "Yes, that is a spring, and you're right Star! It is like the springs on Recall's head…no Recall. We don't eat the things we find in the barn."

Star clicked in annoyance and snatched back the spring that Recall was so determined to chew on before the other sparkling could really get started on it. Recall blinked down at his suddenly empty hand and chirped in disappointment. Bluestreak chuckled as Star huffed with annoyance and pressed the coil into the table, releasing it to allow it to fly up into the air. Recall shrieked in joy as he watched the piece of twisted metal soar up into the air and come back down to land close beside him, clapping when Star grabbed the coil and repeated the action.

"Give up," Wheeljack taunted as he and Victoria determinedly glared at each other. "Unlike you, I never need to blink!" Just as he said that, the human blinked and proceeded to rub her dried out eyes. "Ha! I win."

"And you just proved my point," she retaliated while blinking in rapid succession to get rid of the stinging in her eyes. "What did you find out while we were gone? Are they both okay?"

"Yep!" Wheeljack said cheerfully while turning around to grab the sparklings. "They're both physically fine; a little underdeveloped but nothing to worry about. That leads me to believe that whatever has made them scared was something they saw instead of directly involving them. Not saying that that's any better, but at least they're not hurt in any way."

Victoria sighed in relief and could see Bluestreak do the same. Wheeljack was right when he said it didn't make things all better, but at least that was one less thing they had to worry about. "You're dying to tell us something else; I can tell."

Wheeljack nodded giddily and lowered his hand before Recall could attempt his first try at sky diving. The sparkling gurgled and vaulted into Victoria's arms to cuddle into her. Star was a little harder to get rid of since he seemed intent on chewing through one of Wheeljack's fingers. The engineer wiggled that finger, causing the Seekerlet to growl, before shrugging. "Are we going to have to get you a chew toy? Anyway, I found something _very _interesting once I got a chance to get a good look at their sparks."

He paused dramatically and waited until Bluestreak asked, "Are you going to tell us what it was or do we have to start a game of twenty questions?"

"It has been a while since we've played that game." The engineer smiled in his special way as Victoria and Bluestreak gave him similar looks. "_Fine._ I'll just tell you…wow, you've got a pretty sharp set of chompers there don't you?" A cross between a growl and a purr emitted from Star as Wheeljack used a finger to gently pet the Seekerlet's wing nubs. "I think you might actually leave a mark by the time you're done."

"I don't think he has anything interesting," Victoria mock whispered to Bluestreak, who crouched down to wiggle his fingers above an amused Recall. "He probably just misses the good old days when he did something other than tinker with microwaves."

"I tinker with other things, thank you very much! And I do have interesting stuff to say. For one, these two are definitely mechlings. Both of their sparks follow the same pattern observed in most mechs. Don't give me that look Vicky; despite how sure you were about them being mechs, I had to check. Moving on: Star is in fact a runt. He's about five inches shorter and a couple of pounds lighter than he should be for his estimated age, though that can be debatable with how funky his spark is."

Wheeljack paused for a moment in an attempt to amuse said Seekerlet (which didn't work) before continuing. "His spark is just…weird. I don't know how to describe it. It's like its old but at the same time very young, like half of the old spark was lost and replaced with a new one. I do however know for certain that this little bugger has a trine out there somewhere."

"Should we be worried about two other Seekerlets out there?" Victoria asked with concern.

"Or an older pair of Decepticon Seekers?" Bluestreak added with a bit more severity hidden in his concerned tone.

"I don't know. The trine bonds are connected to the old half of the spark, so I'm guessing that they don't belong to other Seekers his age. But it's odd that older Seekers would share a bond with a Seekerlet, let alone let him out of their sight. I would think that anyone bonded to a sparkling would go the extra mile to keep it safe if only to protect themselves."

"Maybe it was accidental and the Seekers were trying to get rid of him." Bluestreak shrugged when Wheeljack and Victoria gave him identical pairs of incredulous looks. "What? I don't pretend to know how Seekers work."

"You don't bond to someone _accidentally," _Wheeljack said incredulously before looking thoughtfully down at Victoria. "You know, unless you're trapped in a tiny toy replica of yourself, become friends with an unexpectant human (let's just say that human's a female for, uh, explanation's sake), and then travel between dimensions where your very souls are completely exposed to each other. Then—and only in that extremely rare and special case—may you accidentally create a bond. Otherwise it has to be a conscious action to even occur…unless you're a sparkling. Sparklings seem to abide by completely different laws of bonding…and nature…and maybe physics. You know what? Sparklings just have a completely different rule book than us adults."

Star squawked in agreement as he finally released Wheeljack's finger and demandingly pointed to be put down. Recall clicked in excitement and wiggled to be put down as well so that he could crawl to where the engineer placed Star. When the sparklings were settled down with a few harmless spare parts to play with, the adult turned back their conversation. "What about Recall? Did you find out anything we need to know?"

"As a matter of fact, I did," Wheeljack replied while turning to retrieve his datapad from the table. "Recall is not, as I had previously assumed, a Mini-Bot. Don't ask me what type of frame he is because apparently the keywords I use to search through the files to try and figure that out are too broad and won't give me a specific frame and because he's so young, he hasn't developed any telltale signs. So I'm working on that." He tapped his finger against the screen once and subspaced the datapad. "In the meantime, we might have a little problem."

The engineer glanced at the sparklings before crouching down beside Bluestreak and continuing at a lower tone for only them to hear. "When I found out Star had two already established trine bonds, I made sure to run some tests to see if those frequencies matched Recall's spark. Both were negative, so I _assumed _that that meant Recall completely lacked any bonds, which is very important to know because he might reach out and attempt to forge some bond with me or you Bluestreak. Sparklings created the way they were are usually more likely to reach out for a bond after spending half of their development depending on the carrier's spark to keep it going and may even fell uncomfortable without one."

"So it's a problem that he might want to bond to one of you?" Victoria asked in confusion when Wheeljack paused to check on the sparklings they were talking about. "That can't be too upsetting, can it?"

"That's not what the problem is. It would be fine if he formed a sibling or guardian bond with Bluestreak. I'd actually prefer it, since I'm not in the mood to make a bond with anything at the moment. No offense little bitlet; you're adorable, but I'm just not ready." Recall clicked up at the mech as he came rolling between the three adults and kept going until he hit the leg of Wheeljack's table. Then he reversed until he was once again beside Star, now a giggling mess despite the Seekerlet giving him a slightly impatient stare. "Where was I before that brief interruption? Oh yeah, the real problem.

"The real problem is that I found that Recall is actually _bonded_ to something." Wheeljack nodded at their shocked expressions. "Yeah! And it's not to Star. From what I could deduce, it wasn't strong enough to be a creator or guardian bond, and seeing how he's a little too young to be looking for a sparkmate, I believe it's safe to assume that the bond is most likely sibling. A young bond too. So the problem ultimately turns out to be that I think there might be an unaccounted for sparkling out there." He looked between the two of them suspiciously. "Why have you two suddenly lost your shocked expressions and now look like you know that something that I don't?"

Victoria gestured up to Bluestreak. "Go ahead. Tell him what you found in the clearing."

"Well," the Praxian dragged out while detaching a small device, almost like a USB drive, from his arm and handed it to the engineer. "That device you gave me to help us find the pod picked up on traces of other EM fields. I figured the first two were from Recall and Star and the third one was just a glitch since you said the device had never been used before. Is it possible that it's from a third sparkling?"

Wheeljack flipped open an armor panel on his arm and slid the USB drive into a port with ease. Bluestreak and Victoria waited patiently as the engineer downloaded the information, his optics dimming from the action. It didn't take long, and soon he was detaching the device. "Actually, the first and third are Star and Recall's EM field. The second one is the mystery one, and I can most definitely assure you that that is no glitch. Since you thought it was a glitch and Vicky didn't show back up with another bundle of joy, I presume that means the sparkling wasn't found at the crash site."

They shook their heads, and Victoria spoke up as the older Autobot sighed and rubbed his nasal ridge with a finger, a habit he had unconsciously picked up from other teachers while working at the high school. "I know where the sparkling is."

"Vicky," Bluestreak sighed immediately. "He does _not_ have the sparkling! If he did, then I doubt he would have returned to the place he found it and risk being caught. Plus he really seemed like a nice guy when I met him."

"That's because he didn't have his hunting rifle pointed at your head! And I know he's hiding something. A person doesn't change that radically in one day for no reason."

"Unless he's taking something to keep him calm. Besides, you still haven't given a reason as to how he would have even known the pod was there."

"Because. He's. _Crazy!_ He could have been stalking me for all I know."

"Hold on, hold on!" Wheeljack interrupted as he attempted to placate the duo. "Who is this 'he' that we're even talking about and why would he be stalking Victoria?"

"Someone she met yesterday," Bluestreak said with a shrug while Victoria glared at his dismissal. "He was just a crazy client, but I met him today and he looked completely harmless. He probably just suffers from mood swings or skipped a day of taking his meds. If he _was_ dangerous, wouldn't we have heard about him before now? I mean, the only thing I _have _heard about him just makes him sound like a humanized version of Red Alert."

Victoria hated how thoughtful Wheeljack looked right now. "Maybe, but if Vicky thinks that he might be involved, then I think it's worth looking into. She wouldn't suggest it unless she had a legitimate reason even if she can't necessarily put that reason into words. I've seen Jazz go on little more than that when he thought it was important. But Victoria if he _is_ dangerous, then I don't want you going anywhere near him alone. Me and Bluestreak will stake out his house and assess him. If a sparkling is involved in this, then it'll become our top priority to get it to safety even if it means revealing ourselves."

"I still think we should go right now and get that child away from him," Victoria couldn't help but insist even as Bluestreak agreed. "I already _know _that he has something to do with that missing sparkling and giving that man the time to be alone with him worries me."

"I know, but I believe this is what Optimus would do." At the mention of the Prime, Victoria almost immediately backed off the subject. She knew that the engineer was right; Optimus would never go after someone based on little more than a woman's hunch. "As many would say, the man is innocent until proven guilty, and I'd rather not blow our cover if he just turns out to not be completely there if you know what I mean."

"I know, I know. It's just-" She stopped mid-sentence to check on the unnaturally quiet sparklings. "Why did they suddenly get so quiet? A kid only does that when they've gotten into something."

The mechs glanced into that direction as well and began to laugh at the sight that greeted them. Recall looked up from the puddle of white paint he was splashing his hands in and laughed along with them; Star just clicked and continued to smear the white as well as red paint all over his chest. He even reached behind him to grab a pail of blue paint with a content expression on his face instead of what was already becoming his customary pout.

"I think we may have a pair of…Picassoes in the making," Wheeljack joked after a brief internet search on famous human artists.

"Or a pair of Sunstreakers," Bluestreak joked right back with a laugh as Recall began to do his funny rolling through the paint on the floor. "Hopefully they won't develop the same touchy attitude that he has, right Vicky? Vicky?" He looked around when he realized the human was no longer standing with them until he finally found her halfway out the door. "Hey!"

"Oh no," she paused long enough to say as she slid out the door. "Since you two think this is so funny, I'll let you be the ones to clean it up. Just because we have kids now doesn't mean the _woman_ is gonna be saddled with all the responsibility when it comes to them."

They watched her disappear before turning back to the sparklings, both of them finally realizing how big of a mess they had created. "That devious woman. I have to hand it to her though; she knows how to weasel her way out of things."

"Yeah, I think the Twins are rubbing off on her more than we realize," Bluestreak conceded with a sigh before catching the Cybertronian children's attention with a clap of his servos. "Alright! Who wants a bath first?"

**)(**

Later that night, Victoria silently padded up the stairs after helping Bluestreak clean up the paint in the barn. Her conscience had gotten to her when Wheeljack's holoform had come into the house carrying a pair of paint spattered sparklings with minimum difficulty and informed her that Bluestreak had been saddled with barn clean-up after they discovered that his holo-generator had short-circuited after his actions earlier in the day. So while the engineer got the sparklings clean, she had ventured back out to lend the younger mech a hand. They had actually finished cleaning up an hour or two ago and were just sitting outside talking when Wheeljack had come back outside to inform them that Recall and Star had settled down for the night after a very…interesting bath time and feeding.

Now Victoria peeked into the guest room across from her bedroom and smiled at the sight of the two sparklings curled up in the plain queen size bed. She opened the door further and tiptoed to the edge of the bed where she carefully sat down. Recall, the closest one to her, yawned widely in his sleep and rolled over to snuggle up to Star's back. The Seekerlet didn't seem to mind the contact in his sleep and emitted a soft chirp as he brought the sheet clenched in his hand closer to his chin.

Victoria lightly stroked the springs and wires that sprung from Recall's head and silently wondered about the mechling's missing brother or sister, lost out there without anyone to properly care for him. While she didn't like the thought of him being in that James character's possession, she had to admit that that was better than the sparkling being lost in the woods and on his own. Hopefully the man would find more use in the sparkling alive rather than dead and somehow find a way to care for it until the stubborn Autobots she lived with had enough evidence to convince them. Until then, all she could do was wait.

With a near silent sigh, Victoria bent down to place a small kiss on the back of Recall's head, reached across the bed to do the same for Star, and left the room as silently as she had entered it. She made sure to leave the door open wide enough to be able to hear if one of them woke up before making her way to the bathroom further down the hall. The first complete day of having new babies in the house was drawing to a close, but Victoria knew better than to think it was really over.

After all, every new "mother" knew that it was the time after dark that proved to be the most challenging.

* * *

**AN:** I_ had_ thought that this chapter would be bouncing back to the Decepticons, but I decided that it would make more sense to write this first :P Decepticons will be in the next chapter, which is already a good length done :)

So…yeah :) I'm half asleep right now, so I'll leave it at that for fear of saying something stupid :P


	8. Moving On

**AN: **Decepticons anyone? ;) It must have been the mood I was in, but this chapter came out a little more dramatic than I thought it would. My Decepticons just did not want to be happy campers :(

**Warnings: **Decepticons being Decepticons, and Rumble's nasty language

_"Thinking"  
:Com Talk:  
_**~Bond Speech~**

Time Units  
Joor- ~1 hour  
Megacycle: ~2.6 hours  
Vorn: 83 years  
Stellar cylcle: 7.5 months  
Deca-cycle: ~3 weeks  
Solar cycle: 1 day

* * *

A New Version of Reality

Chapter Six

Moving On

**I can't walk this road without you, you cannot go it alone.  
We were never meant to make it on our own – "I'll Carry You" Rebecca St. James**

* * *

_**~TC.~**_

If he had had the ability to do so at the moment, Thundercracker would have sighed in frustration. As it was, it was difficult to do that action when you were stuck in the shape of a pod blasting through space to your targeted destination. The first order of business after touching down would be finding a suitable alt-mode. Then disappearing for a couple of joors to glide along the air currents without a care in the world. And if there wasn't anywhere for him to peacefully glide around? There was going to be some to hell to pay…

**~TC, are we there yet? I think my joints are locking up…and I'm bored. Entertain me!~**

**~I'll entertain you right off the face of a cliff then shoot you all the way down if you don't shut up!~**

**~Man, I hate it when we have to travel this way! You get so cranky; you're the most stereotypical case of Seeker Fever ever. You should be more like me and just not think every once in a while. That ability comes in handy more often than you'd think. Like when we have to listen to mission reports, or when we have to write the mission reports, or when Soundwave is trying to hack your head with his creepy stare, or-~**

Unsurprisingly, _this_ was how most of their conversations had been since leaving Shockwave's ship. Thundercracker would admit that he did suffer from what was known as Seeker Fever, which was the name some medical bot had given the condition of when a Seeker, after being confined to a small space for an invariable amount of time, got a little…upset to put it mildly. Sudden mood swings and severely out of character tendencies were pretty common as well, which was why Skywarp didn't take his brother's threat very seriously. They had known another Seeker a long time ago, meanest spark that easily rivaled Megatron's on a good day, who turned into an obsessive cuddler towards anyone unlucky enough to become trapped in a small space with him. A Seeker who suffered from the Fever just did anything they could to keep their minds of being trapped instead of free and flying like they were meant to be.

Thundercracker just happened to be the type that got violent when confined.

_:How much longer is this seriously going to take?:_ Thundercracker asked Shockwave, who was the leading pod in the trio. It was the first time throughout the entire trip that either Seeker had attempted to communicate with the scientist. _:We don't even know where you're taking us.:_

The radio was silent for a moment, and Thundercracker was convinced that Shockwave would ignore him and was about to snap at Skywarp to shut up as the other Seeker continued to name instances where not thinking came in handy when a slight burst of static from the scientist's end of the comm. link signaled him opening a link channel. _:According to my calculations and Starscream's rushed coordinate input, our ETA is exactly one megacycle.:_

"_It's about time,"_ Thundercracker thought impatiently, finally snapping at the other Seeker, who made some humorous quip before going off on another subject. _"When I get my servos on Starscream…he's going to be wishing that he was someone else."_

**)(**

The crisp air of the Russian tundra was undisturbed as the little area appeared devoid of life. Light blankets of snow covered the rocky ground as the sun beat down from the clear sky above. From a hidden opening, a harmless little mouse poked its nose out to scent the air. It slowly emerged as it grew confident that predators were nowhere near and darted across the almost barren field in search of a small morsel of food before burrowing back down its safe home.

Up a thin twig it ran in preparation of using it as a spring board of sorts to get a little more distance and-

The mouse suddenly went flying from its perch, bouncing along the ground before landing heavily. From a few yards away, a previously still form purred to life, extending its wings in a sort of stretch and unfurling it long neck to glare at the pathetic heap of mass it had shot at. "This isn't even fun anymore. Where is that pesky little mech when you actually need him?"

The vulture-esque Cybertronian prepared to leave the stump it had sat on when a clipped command came across his comm. link. _:Laserbeak, incoming unknown entities. Three in total. Investigate.:_

_:Of course,:_ Laserbeak hissed across the channel before taking off and following the directions that his master sent through an encrypted databurst. Nothing was ever easy when it came to Soundwave, but Laserbeak found that through the vorns of working for the Communications Officer that he didn't really mind. It may not have been easy, but Soundwave gave him…_fun_ tasks to complete. And whenever he was bored, one of the two little mechs that insisted on following his master around like little younglings was always around to relieve that boredom.

As he neared the designated drop zone, Laserbeak veered off to perch on one of the crumbled buildings in the area. The one, and only, thing he liked about Russia and some of the countries surrounding it was the fact that humans had made the Decepticons' lives a little easier with their screw-ups. The Chernobyl disaster a few years ago was the perfect example. It had created an almost hideaway for the Decepticons to use every once in a while without the worry of humans stumbling across them. Of course some still lived in the area and tourists insisted on venturing into the poisoned land, but they were nothing Laserbeak couldn't deter.

More importantly, there was no one around to question the three pods that were breaking the atmosphere and hurdling faster and faster to the surface of the planet. Laserbeak watched in mild interest as the first touched down, making a deep crater where it landed. The other two weren't as "perfect," coming down at an angle and skidding a couple of yards before coming to a halt.

Laserbeak tensed as he watched the first pod begin to break apart and reveal the protoform within, hinting to the assassin that the trip had been a long one for the new group. The form was bulky even in the absence of armor, though that did not last for long. Once the mech was fully out of the pod it instantly began to transform, obsidian armor appearing from where it had been stored in the mech's subspace to cover his more vulnerable form.

The smaller Decepticon had a good idea of who the first mech was when his arm transformed into a huge cannon, but he remained on the jagged wall silently observing the other two forms that had landed farther away. Once they were out of the pods, it was obvious what type of build they were. The upper part of the protoforms were wider than usual (not to mention their whole form was bigger than the average mech), thrusters were embedded on the heels of their pedes, and unprotected twitching wings gave it away.

That and the bigger of the two tackled the other in obvious repercussions of Seeker Fever.

The smaller form protested with a yell as he went tumbling over from the impact. "TC! It's not my fault."

"We're here now Skywarp," TC (or Thundercracker as Decepticons who were not Skywarp were forced to call him) growled in a slightly crazed tone as he grabbed the back of the other Seeker's helm. "See? See!" Skywarp gave another muffled shout as his face was forced into the snowy ground beneath them. "What was that? I finally can't hear you!"

"It's the Fever talking!" Skywarp was able to get out when he wrestled his face out of the snow. "You're not normally like this TC. I know you! Wait, why does this stuff on the ground look familiar?"

"Why don't you get a closer look?"

Laserbeak finally let out a chuckle as the two Seekers rolled around on the ground. It was a childish act, but the miniature Decepticon hadn't had much entertainment these last few years on Earth. After getting the space programs shut down and the diminutive humans kept quiet, there wasn't much left to do other than wait until Megatron or the AllSpark was located.

His chuckle drew the attention of the first mech, who turned toward the source with weapons at the ready before slowly lowering them. "Laserbeak, how…_good_ to see you."

"The feeling is mutual," Laserbeak snapped back while sidestepping on his perch. There were few Decepticons outside of Soundwave that he could stand—Shockwave wasn't one of them. But the scientist ranked a little higher than most. "I see you've picked up dumb and dumber during your isolation."

Shockwave glanced over to where Skywarp now had Thundercracker in a shaky strangle-hold and was attempting to talk the big Seeker down. He gave a half nod as he answered, "I suppose so; though I admit finding you here is quite a surprise."

Laserbeak did another sidestep and stared the scientist down. Suspicion within the Decepticon army was almost like an instinct that could never be turned off. There were some shady characters that the bird-con labeled as allies, and those "allies" could have very well offlined him if Laserbeak had ever put his full trust in any of them. He didn't even fully trust Soundwave.

Right now his "suspicion radar" was going off without pause. Shockwave had been one of the many Decepticons who had taken off into space without a second thought when Megatron had vanished. He had refused to allow either Soundwave or his little minions aboard his ship, yet he had willingly allowed Starscream to place two of his own on the ship _and_ brought them to earth with him. Laserbeak didn't know what the scientist had planned, and he wasn't about to let the mech go without finding out.

So for the time being, he would play "nice" and allow the mono-optic Decepticon believe he was none the wiser. "Soundwave managed to track down Lord Megatron's last transmission from this region. A recent signal and the need to keep the primitive locals quiet has led us to this little sphere of dirt where Soundwave is near positive that our leader lies in stasis."

"Is that so?" Shockwave questioned with almost real curiosity. "How fortuitous of us to have landed here. A breakthrough in my research has led me to search out our dear leader. We were actually planning on this being a brief 'pit stop' to allow the Seekers to stretch before they could harm themselves-" In the background of their conversation, Thundercracker suddenly reached behind him, grabbed Skywarp around the waist, and managed to throw the other mech over his shoulder before jumping on the stunned Seeker's back. "-but now that it has been made aware that our leader is actually _here,_ I believe we will remain here and assist in your search."

Laserbeak continued to stare before nodding. "Soundwave will meet us at our temporary base to brief you. Afterwards the dimwits need to scan an appropriate alt-mode before their antics make the primates aware of our existence too early."

Shockwave nodded and turned to address the Seekers. "Skywarp, Thundercracker. Desist your foolishness this instant and remain on task."

Thundercracker immediately straightened, dragging Skywarp up with him. "Of course. My apologies for acting so…childish."

The scientist stared at the two blankly, and Thundercracker almost glared as Laserbeak snickered into one of his wings. "That involves releasing Skywarp so that he does not choke on his own fluids."

Skywarp fell to the ground with a grunt. Thundercracker acted as if nothing had happened and stepped over the twitching form to join the other two Decepticons, nodding towards the smaller one. "Laserbeak. I'm happy to say that it's been a long time since seeing you. A vorn maybe?"

"Two actually. Sad to say that I can't say the same with Starscream."

"No one can," Thundercracker said with a scowl before glancing around. "I'm surprised Soundwave wasn't here to greet us."

"He has more important things to deal with than three random landings," Laserbeak answered, maneuvering his body in the right way to show off his weapons. Just in case the mechs didn't get his hidden meaning. "He will arrive shortly now that it is known that _Shockwave_ has come out of his self-isolation."

"I look forward to seeing-"

"TC! Tell me where I've seen this white stuff before," Skywarp cut in. He was holding one servo out and allowing a few stray snowflakes to fall into it. Each flake instantly melted on contact with the warm metal. "I can't remember!"

"Nowhere Skywarp," Thundercracker answered while ignoring the curious Laserbeak glancing between the two Seekers. "You're probably mistaking it for the static that fills your optics when you're hit too hard across the helm."

Skywarp thought about it and shrugged. "Whatever. Do we have to wait for Sounders? I'm bored and wanna do something other than sit still."

"Perhaps you could pass the time by looking for an appropriate alt-mode," Laserbeak suggested almost eagerly. "That should keep you preoccupied for a while. We will all meet back at our current base of operations."

"Excellent idea," Shockwave agreed though the Seekers glared at how the bird spoke like they were simpletons. "It gives you a chance to look around."

Thundercracker nodded and accepted the coordinates Laserbeak sent him, and the Seekers transformed into their Cybertronian alt-modes. Shockwave watched them vanish into the horizon before turning back to Laserbeak. "Care to inform me of what I have missed?"

"_Not particularly,"_ Laserbeak thought snidely but nodded anyway.

**)(**

"This base sucks."

"I know Skywarp."

"Soundwave should've hired a better decorator. Laserbeak has a horrible taste in colors."

"I know Skywarp."

"…TC, they have a robotic chicken head mounted beside a huge, life sized replica of Optimus Prime worshiping Megatron."

"I know Sky- wait, what?" Thundercracker sighed as Skywarp snickered and skipped ahead through the crumbled town. "Skywarp pay attention! We'll have to explain why it didn't take long for us to find alt-modes if Shockwave or Laserbeak shows up, since we can't exactly say 'These are the alt-schematics from our last visit to Earth; we just decided to reuse them instead of finding another'."

"You're telling _me_ to pay attention?" Skywarp said in a scandalous voice. "You were the one who was about to agree with knowing that there was a life sized Prime worshiping Megsy which was set up beside the head of a robotic chicken. Maybe you should reevaluate your own attention span before bagging on mi- oi! Is that that thingy that was in the center of Iacon?"

Thundercracker looked over at what Skywarp was pointing at and did a quick search on the World Wide Web, a handy little tool that he had wished he had the first time they were on Earth. "Are you talking about the merry-go-round?"

"No! It's the…thingy. You know in Iacon? The thingy we shot at because it looked a huge target from the air."

The blue Seeker stared for a moment, wings twitching slightly as he attempted to remember what Skywarp spoke of, before shaking his head and continuing to the designated building. "I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about."

"Oh yeah! That's because it was 'Screamer who was with me. You flew off after calling us idiots, but we couldn't hear you very well over Star's maniacal laughter and the screaming terror from below. Good times, good times."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Why can't you have any fond memories of before the war? When destruction wasn't the only thing to get a laugh out of you?"

"I do…they're just buried deep into my subconscious and don't wish to be seen at the moment."

"That's called 'repression' 'Warp."

"No, it's called 'saving it for a rainy day' _'Cracker." _Skywarp flinched as something smacked him in-between the optics as they entered the hollowed building. Like an experienced Decepticon soldier, his weapons came online without a second thought. "Who's attacking me?"

"Depends. You ready for a tumble with the Rumble?"

"I'm ready to squish a Cassette under my pede."

Thundercracker watched with a slight frown as a slender red and black figure crisscrossed between Skywarp's legs, causing the bigger mech to foolishly dance around and curse. The blue Seeker simply shook his helm and carefully stepped over what must have been Rumble's space (it had a few bean bag chairs, a huge plasma TV and entertainment system, three different game consoles, and a dozen stacks of games and DVDs. If it wasn't Rumble's area then Laserbeak and Soundwave had taken up some new interests). He sat down on a pile of rubble that made a semi-comfy seat and watched the two behave like a pair of younglings.

Skywarp and the Cassette twins already had an established relationship of being partner pranksters within the Decepticon ranks. They had met soon after the Seekers had joined the Decepticons; actually, they had met because the twins had attempted to play a prank on them. The Cassettes pranked all of the newbies and the Seekers just happened to be on their list. Unfortunately, that was before they had known of Starscream's infamous temper, Skywarp's penchant for revenge with (usually much worse) prank retaliation, and Thundercracker's general dislike of anything smaller than an average grounder. Needless to say, the Cassettes were smart enough to come up with some sort of agreement with the Seekers early on: they could only prank Starscream if Skywarp was to help and Thundercracker was off limits unless they wanted to explain to Soundwave how one of them was squished. All other Seekers outside of the Elite Trine were free game.

But something had happened after being transported to two different dimensions. Thundercracker and Skywarp had been the last two of the Decepticons to show up; no one else they had been with had "woken up" after them that they knew of. Thundercracker, Skywarp, Barricade, Bonecrusher, Rumble, Frenzy, perhaps Starscream now—they were the only "originals" as Thundercracker sometimes thought of them as.

Rumble and Frenzy had had the hardest time adjusting. There were no such things as "Cassettes" here, just symbiots like Scorponok or Laserbeak. While they had symbiotic relationships with bigger mechs, it wasn't nearly as deep as what the Cassettes had shared with Soundwave or with each other. And it showed with how Soundwave would let his symbiots wonder off without a second glance, even allowing them to go off with other mechs, or how Laserbeak more often than not used the twins as a source of vindictive entertainment.

The moment they had first reunited with the twins it was apparent that something was off. They had been loyally following Soundwave along with this dimension's versions of Ravage and Laserbeak, and they had been the only ones to react to Thundercracker and Skywarp like Barricade had. Rumble had tried joking with Skywarp, which hadn't been easy the first few days after realizing Starscream was no longer with them, but he could never hang around for long for fear of letting his brother out of his sight.

Whether from the amount of time he had spent separated from Soundwave and the other Cassettes or something the twins had never talked about, Frenzy had started to glitch. For some reason it got bad whenever he was around the Seekers, spouting nonsense and twitching uncontrollably. Always mumbling something about the AllSpark, though it was never clear of exactly what he said. It was hard on Rumble to watch his brother deteriorate; he couldn't even do anything when Frenzy had insisted on leaving with Barricade without sending the other former Cassette into a tizzy.

So Rumble had stayed with Soundwave and vanished into space when every "important" Decepticon went searching for the AllSpark and Megatron while the Seekers had been sent off to monitor Shockwave. He clung to the hope that Soundwave would one day wake up and be, well, _Soundwave. _It was a hope that wasn't so different from Skywarp's when it concerned Starscream, and in a lot of ways it was a burden. It was difficult to stare into the face of someone who was so familiar yet completely different, waiting for the day that they remembered.

"Did your little cozy vacation on Shockwave's ship cripple you?" Rumble taunted as he ducked out of the way of a pede. "This is pathetic!"

"Come here!" Skywarp yelled as his patience finally snapped, and he snatched up the protesting Rumble. He squeezed the mech for moment before snarkily grinning. "Not so tough without your pile drivers are you?"

Rumble scowled at the mention of his missing equipment. His new form was too small and slim to support heavy equipment like pile drivers. But that didn't leave him _completely _defenseless, which Skywarp had the unfortunate luck of finding out. "Eat this scrap heap!"

Skywarp yelped at the flying circular blades that were suddenly shot at him, scratching his cheek plate as he ducked out of the way. Rumble took advantage of the shock and slipped out of the Seeker's slackened grip. As Skywarp cursed, Rumble dashed over to where Thundercracker was sitting, scrambling up the rubble and in a mockingly prissy way sat beside the older Decepticon. "What's _cracking_, 'Cracker?"

"Don't make me flick you and your bad puns," Thundercracker warned threateningly as he readied his servo to do just that.

Rumble snorted and climbed back down to plonk down on his bean bag chair. "The excitement of you guys has worn off, so get the frag out while I get my game on."

Skywarp rubbed the now tender scratch on his cheek as he crouched down beside the smaller 'former and watched as he used the steering wheel shaped controller to continue the game he had paused before the Seekers had entered the building. "Oh, so now you're pretending to be a groundpounder? Does it make you feel better compared to the fact that all of your alt-modes _suck?"_

"No, cars are just more fun to crash," Rumble said with a smirk as he jerked the steering wheel to abruptly drive the virtual car off the road and into the river. He respawned back on the road and continued on into a tree. "I've gotta game that lets me be a jet too, and I crash into buildings in that. Sometimes I even crash into other jets and pretend they're that rat faced fragger Starscream."

Skywarp pursed his lips at the insult and stood up to join Thundercracker. "I'm bored. Let's go flying or something. We don't have to twiddle our thumbs and wait for Shockwave. Him and Laserbeak are probably still talking, and it'll take them _forever_ to get here."

The older Seeker actually took a few moments to contemplate the suggestion before nodding and standing up. Rumble paused his game and watched as the Seekers began to leave the building. "H-hey! I didn't really mean you had to leave!"

"It's not you Rumble," Thundercracker assured him as Skywarp ducked out of the building to stretch his wings. "We've been scrunched up in pods for the last few stellar cycles. I'm sure you know a thing or two of what tends to happen to a Seeker when confined to a small space for long time."

Rumble threw the controller down and chased after them without pausing to turn off the electronics. "When are you coming back?"

"Probably not for a couple of joors."

"Take me with you!"

Skywarp snorted, and Thundercracker turned to politely refuse when he caught the look on Rumble's face that made him pause. It was a look he had seen on Skywarp's face multiple times especially right before he would go off and consume as much high-grade as possible without poisoning himself. He had even seen it on Bonecrusher's face once or twice when the Constructicon's teammates immediately left him alone after their job was complete; it was a look that had been commonly displayed by Frenzy when he wasn't glitching or pointedly keeping himself busy with dangerous spying missions. Pit, he had even seen it on _his_ face in the mirror. It was a look deep and weary, one that began deep in the spark and took a lot to fully fester and show.

Rumble was deeply and spark-wrenchingly alone, and not just in the physical sense.

And to Thundercracker's dismay, that look had a heavy effect on him especially coming from the normally confident and outgoing mech.

It made him realize that while he and Skywarp had lost a brother, Rumble had lost what he considered his _entire family, _a family that despite all the trials and tribulations had survived through war and dangerous Decepticon ranks. Instead of a sister, he had a disgusting assassin that made some of the most hardened Decepticons cringe at his malice; a mindless feline companion that paled in comparison to the _real_ Ravage with his cunning and stealth; a brother that had completely lost his mind; and a "father" that wouldn't even give a second glance if Rumble were to offline that very moment. It was amazing the symbiot hadn't followed the same path as his brother and lost his mind.

…slag his abnormally sympathetic spark. The effects of Seeker Fever must not have completely worn off yet.

"TC," Skywarp whined and shook his arm in a very youngling-like act. He sighed when he noticed Rumble's envious look. "Let's go!"

Thundercracker shuffled towards the Seeker and sighed again when Rumble physically drooped and turned to re-enter the building. "_Fine,_ but there's gonna be some ground rules-"

"Yes!" Rumble celebrated and rushed over to the Seeker's pedes. "Let's get going! Do you know how _long_ it's been since I got out of here? Soundwave gives all the important stuff to _Laserbeak_, and all I get is an order to stay hidden and entertain myself. They leave me behind on this mudball all the time when they have to travel back to the _Nemesis, _and I can't even hack the humans' MySpace accounts because it 'draws too much unwanted attention.' What's the point of learning my awesome skills if I can't use them?"

"Hey, hey, hey!" Thundercracker protested in a voice that cracked at the end as Rumble nimbly climbed up his front. Skywarp blinked in confusion at the symbiot's actions before snickering at his obviously upset trine mate. Thundercracker let out an unseemly squawk that would have put Starscream to shame as Rumble stuck his spindly fingers under the gapes of his chest armor. "What the frag do you think you're doing?"

"I'm getting into your hold," the symbiot stated obviously. He finally noticed the shocked Seeker's expression and almost gawked. "Are you serious? How can you not know what a hold is?"

Thundercracker snatched the red mech off of him, getting loud and insulting protests, and held him out where he could see him clearly. "No, now explain to me why I shouldn't crush you right now for attempting to get my armor open."

Rumble groaned, not in pain but aggravation, as the bigger mechs stared him down, one angry the other curious. "A hold, hatch, containment doohickey, whatever you want to call it, is pretty much just a small hollow space situated by your spark. The Boss explained once that when it was common for sparklings to be runnin' around, their carriers would use the holds to carry them around in, especially if the sparkling was still too young to be moving on its own. It's the part of a Cybertronian that can be retrofitted to be inhabited by Cassettes or surgically maneuvered to a less vulnerable place for symbiots to inhabit. That's what Blackout did when Megatron ordered him to take Scorponok. Or did you think he just had a convenient cubbyhole in his back?"

Skywarp curiously poked at his own chest while Thundercracker continued to scowl. Rumble glared back. "Hey, don't blame because your half-twit creators didn't take the time to explain your own body to you! You're a full-grown mech; you should be knowledgeable of what's inside you. And it's not like I'm gonna attack your spark or something. If I kill you while I'm in there, I might as well kill myself!"

Thundercracker continued to scowl as he reached down to unlock and slightly slid his chest armor apart. Beside the thick glass compartment that kept his pulsing spark protected and contained was in fact a small hollow space, which he had never noticed before. Then again, he didn't often pry his chest open to stare in there. That was kind of creepy now that he thought about it. And when you're with a partner…well, you're kind of busy doing _other stuff_ to notice. "How do I know you won't try crawling around in my insides?"

"Okay first, eww! Why would I wanna crawl around in a Seeker's nasty insides? Secondly, as soon as your armor slides back shut it serves as a sort of 'door' to the space. I can't leave it until you reopen armor. And thirdly…just ew man."

The blue jet observed Rumble for a moment, making the tiny mech squirm as he grew impatient. "If you try anything funny, let me assure you that Skywarp won't hesitate to retaliate. You should now through experience that you don't mess with one part of a trine and not expect the other two-thirds to react." Rumble clamped his tiny mouth shut, figuring it wouldn't be a good time to point out that Skywarp was only one around to react. "And like I said earlier: ground rules. If you make yourself into an annoyance, I immediately eject you; don't distract me while we travel; and if we land and you happen to get out, I'm leaving you if you don't return the moment I say we're leaving."

Rumble nodded and eagerly scrambled up Thundercracker's arm when he was released. Thundercracker shuddered a bit as the skinny mech weaseled his way through the small opening in his armor and settled down into the hold. The jet immediately closed the panels, rubbing the side that he could _feel_ Rumble sitting in, before turning to an abnormally quiet Skywarp. "Alright, let's- Skywarp what are you doing?"

"I'm testing something out."

"Skywarp get that junk out."

"But _TC."_

"Skywarp, I mean it."

"But I need to figure out how many cubes might fit in there! Do you know much high-grade I could smuggle into a base with this hold? I'd never have to deal with other Decepticons wanting my good stuff or some fragging officer taking it away again! And I won't forget it and let it spoil like I would if it was in my subspace. That reminds me, I should probably check on the couple of cubes that are already there."

Thundercracker sighed as his brother continued stacking small square crates about the size of an average cube of Energon into his hold. Trust Skywarp to turn what was meant to hold a _sparkling_ into a way to smuggle high-grade of all things.

**)(**

Skywarp yelled as he twirled up and down, left to right, then threw in a little loop-the-loop just for the fun of it. A more restrained Thundercracker glided behind him, wanting to join in but hyper-aware of his passenger.

The Seekers had been enjoying the freedom for the good part of a megacycle with little trouble. There was one point when they came across a large human vessel slowly traveling beneath them, and it took everything he had for Thundercracker to keep Skywarp from warping down to it to scare the passengers. But the crisis had been averted when something off in the distance had drawn the teleporter's attention and he had flown off without a second glance at the commercial airplane.

Rumble had been thankfully quiet for the majority of the ride. At first he had been a little chatty over the comm. channel that Thundercracker left open for him and Skywarp, but eventually that had died down, and Thundercracker would have forgotten his presence if he didn't feel the symbiot sitting inside of him. It was an odd experience that made him wonder how Soundwave could have managed several Cassettes at once.

Skywarp was currently performing a death spiral at speeds that would have made anyone cringe when Thundercracker received a sudden ping. Shutting out Rumble for a moment, the Seeker went to work on decrypting the heavily encrypted message and sighed when he realized it had come straight from Shockwave. **~Skywarp, Shockwave just sent a set of coordinates for us to check out. It's not far from here.~**

**~Think it's 'Screamer?~ **Skywarp asked with barely veiled excitement as he twirled through the air to fly beside his trine brother.

**~We'll see,~** Thundercracker answered vaguely before switching back to the open channel between them and Rumble. _:We're going to be landing soon.:_

_:Whatever,: _Rumble in a, dare Thundercracker wonder why, _sleepy _voice. _:You know, your hold's almost as cozy as the Boss's. You can barely feel any movement in here.:_

_:Don't get comfortable in there,: _Thundercracker warned as they headed towards their new destination. _:This is a one-time deal.:_

Rumble hummed and went back to radio silence. The Seeker was beginning to worry about the former-Cassette falling asleep _inside of him_ when he heard Skywarp yelp and focused on his brother suddenly falling back. _:What's wrong?:_

His question was conveniently answered when an unmarked fighter jet appeared through the wispy clouds to take Skywarp's place at his side. It rankled him to see the non-sentient jet so casually take his trine mate's position, and his nerves were ground further when he saw the human inside of the jet look out at him like the ape some kind of authority over him. He felt Rumble shift about inside of him. _:Hey, he's trying to send you a message, but you aint connected to the frequency human communications use yet.:_

_:What's he want?:_

_:He's telling you two to get the frag out of here, you're in restricted air space, and—oh yeah!—him and his buddies will are gonna send ya to the smelter if you don't comply in the next few seconds.:_

Thundercracker would have snorted as two more unknown entities popped up on his radar, closing in fast. _:Well sorry. I don't take orders from humans, and we just so happen to be in a little hurry. Skywarp, you take care of them while I fly ahead.:_

**~But why?~**Skywarp complained, switching from the comm. link to their bond to make sure Thundercracker knew how upset he was. **~I wanna see 'Screamer! He's back and I wanna to yell at him for taking so long to get here.~**

**~And miss out on showing up the humans?~ **Thundercracker insisted, playing on his brother's immense pride. The one way to always manipulate Skywarp or Starscream had been their pride. **~Well, if you don't want to then I guess I'll-~**

**~No, I got it!~ **Skywarp insisted now that the idea had been planted in his head. **~You just go get 'Screamer.~**

With that said, Skywarp activated his warping generator, vanishing in a flash and reappearing somewhere off to the side between the two oncoming jets. The human still flying beside Thundercracker turned around inside his cockpit, and he didn't need Rumble's commentary to know that the squishy had made some exclamation of disbelief. While they were thoroughly distracted, the older mech activated his fuel reserves and blasted off at incredible speeds, leaving only his signature sonic boom behind to further confuse the humans.

The humans thoroughly left behind now, Thundercracker and his passenger continued on to their destination. The ground far below them became less and less populated by towns and cities until they had officially entered the country where human settlements were stretched further and further apart. The Decepticon flier followed the coordinates sent from Shockwave until he picked up on another Cybertronian signal very familiar to him.

_:Is that 'Screamer?:_ Rumble asked as he too noticed the "loud" signal being broadcasted by the other Seeker. _:Man, what's got his panties in a twist? He doesn't normally broadcast himself like this, especially when he knows that Soundwave or Laserbeak might be nearby.:_

Thundercracker ignored the strange human phrase and circled the area above where he finally found Starscream. From a distance it appeared as if the second-in-command was searching for something, growing more and more agitated by the minute as he didn't find it.

With a small amount of hesitance, Thundercracker transformed mid-air and used his thrusters to gently hover down to an area near Starscream. The Air Commander didn't notice him at first, his searching becoming frantic as he even searched under boulders, and soon what was left of Thundercracker's patience began to wither and he attracted the other mech's attention with a sharp "What were you thinking?"

Starscream screeched and flailed around until his weapons were finally trained on Thundercracker, who snorted at the fact that he could have easily disabled the SIC during his embarrassing flailing. "Thundercracker? I thought I ordered you to remain with Shockwave!"

"I am. Did you really expect him to let you go like that? Obviously you took something pretty important."

Starscream seemed to hesitate for a moment before lowering his weapons, clearly believing that Thundercracker was more loyal to him than the scientist and not a threat. "You don't know what it was?"

"Should I?" the mech questioned and held his servo out to the other. "Just give me whatever you took and maybe Shockwave will let it slide."

Starscream looked between Thundercracker's face and servo before suddenly guffawing. The reaction had been the least expected thing to happen, and Thundercracker let his arm drop in surprise. Starscream bent over double using one arm to wrap around him middle and the other servo to grab his helm as he cackled without restraint.

"Oh _Thundercracker. _If you knew what it was that I took, I doubt you'd be so eager to return it to Shockwave even if you _aren't_ completely fond of them. Neither would you be asking for it back in such a casual way."

"What are you talking about?" Thundercracker questioned, his anger rising as the other Seeker just continued to laugh. "Enough of these games Starscream! You're in serious slag and I can't help unless you tell me what's going on."

"Since when have you been so eager to help _me?"_ Starscream asked with snide surprise and an ugly scowl. "Last I checked neither you nor Skywarp could stand to be in my presence."

"Since-" Thundercracker began to answer before stopping. Taking a step back, the cyan mech pointedly analyzed the Seeker before him. Starscream scowled back, just like he normally did, and his wings fluttered with unhinged impatience. Thundercracker hesitantly unfurled the EM field he normally kept so tightly pinned to his form and reached out to the Seeker standing across from him.

A _true_ trine leader would acknowledge the distressed field of a trine mate and work to dismiss it whichever way worked best for the Seeker. Thundercracker rarely displayed such distress, and Starscream had learned over the many vorns of being his and Skywarp's leader that the easiest way to dispel the stress was to simply allow the blue Seeker to briefly come into contact with his leader's own field. _Hard to trouble, easy to mend_, Starscream had once said while wincing as Skywarp demanded the physical comfort needed to calm him.

If this Starscream accepted the touch then it would easily prove the fragile hope that Thundercracker had developed during the long trip from Shockwave's ship to Earth. It hadn't been a fluke to feel a response from Starscream's end of the trine bond after so long; Skywarp had felt it too. So he wasn't going mad or simply experiencing a memory flux because they had felt it at the same time. That could only mean the real Starscream was right in front of him…right?

Apparently not as the Seeker before him hissed at the sudden contact between EM fields and staggered backwards with a glare. "What are you _doing?_ You have no right to make that casual contact with me! I should have you rendered flightless for –ack!"

Thundercracker ignored the SIC's words as he snapped his EM field back to his person and stalked over to grab the armor around the collar of the Seeker, pulling at the sensitive wiring just beneath the armor. Using his superior height, the cyan mech glowered above the other Decepticon, making him yelp in obvious displeasure. "Like I said—I'm done playing _games._ Give me back what you took and I _might_ offline you myself as a reward."

"How is _that_ a reward?!"

"I'm pretty positive Shockwave wouldn't offline you in one clean swoop. You've seen how he likes to…_examine_ the Autobots unlucky enough to be imprisoned by him."

Starscream looked truly afraid as he looked up at Thundercracker, realizing that the Seeker wasn't exaggerating. He honestly meant what he said. "Y-you can't just kill me! I'm your trine leader; your Air Commander; a fellow _Seeker_ for frag's sake!" He whimpered as his "fellow Seeker" had no qualms shoving a null ray between the seams of his chest armor, hitting the sensitive protoform below. "I don't have it! It was supposed to land here but it didn't. Something must have happened to divert it from its original course, and it landed somewhere else, but I don't know where. _Don't kill me!_"

Thundercracker glared down at the all but weeping mass of metal before scoffing and easily tossing the form aside. "You're not worth the energy it would take."

Starscream scrambled backwards, vents wheezing as his brush with death overheated his systems with panic, and shot up from the ground to take a running leap into the air. Thundercracker hardly spared him a glance as the cowardly Seeker transformed mid-jump and took off across the sky to destinations unknown.

He inwardly scolded himself for getting his hopes up, to actually _believe_ that their Starscream had finally been found. When was he going to learn? There had already been two false alarms that he hadn't told Skywarp about for fear of getting the younger Seeker's hopes up like his own. Once a little after Skywarp had come to him, thoroughly convinced feeling their third's presence across the bond; another while he was passing through the corridor across from Shockwave's personal rooms between duties. Both hopes had been utterly crushed when he had contacted Starscream only to have the SIC yell at him for wasting his time when he had nothing detrimental against Shockwave to report.

_:Hey.:_ Thundercracker jumped at the sudden hesitant voice before realizing it came from Rumble. Funny how he had almost forgotten about the other mech inside of him..._and_ that "on-edge-having-someone-inside-you-is-just-creepy" feeling has returned. _:Skywarp's coming in pretty fast. Guess he finished dealing with the humans.:_

Thundercracker nodded even if the little mech couldn't see, and Rumble went back to his contemplative silence. The Seeker would have been worried about the abnormal behavior but he was too focused on Skywarp flying over them, transforming when he was right above them and free-falling to land with a loud thud in front of them. The black and purple mech looked around eagerly only to pout as the area lacked one more Seeker. "Where's Star? I thought he was supposed to be here."

Thundercracker worked to make his features as neutral as possible, which wasn't too much of a difficult action to achieve, and shrugged. "The area was completely deserted when I got here. If Starscream has been here, then we must have just missed him."

Skywarp pouted even more before letting out a resigned sigh. "Well what are we gonna tell Shockwave?"

Relief flooded the older mech at Skywarp's easy acceptance, and his wings finally relaxed from the tense position he hadn't even realized they had taken. "That whatever he's looking for wasn't here and doesn't look like it ever _has _been. He'll just have to accept that and figure out another approach."

Skywarp shrugged and jumped into the air to transform and fly away without any prompting. Thundercracker moved to follow him, to enjoy the little free time they might have left before Shockwave made them begin to search for his missing _whatever,_ when Rumble silently pinged him to join a private comm. link. _:What?:_

_:Why did you lie about Starscream?: _Rumble asked, and if Thundercracker wasn't imaging it, the little spy actually sounded affronted. _:He thinks the real Starscream is here when he's obviously _not._ You gonna let him keep thinking that?:_

_:Yes.:_

_:_Why? _Why would you let him get his hopes up like that?:_

_:Because I'm afraid he won't recover from having them crushed this time,: _Thundercracker answered sincerely as he watched his brother loop around in the sky with an enthusiasm he hadn't had since onlining here. _:You know what it's like to have a brother go insane from an unresponsive bond made worse when the one you're supposed to be bonded to can look you in the optics and not feel a thing. How many times did Frenzy get his hopes up of Soundwave suddenly acknowledging him like he used to only to have them brutally crushed? I have to protect Skywarp, and right now letting him believe is the only way I can do that until I think he's ready to hear the truth.:_

Rumble was silent, and Thundercracker took that as a sign to transform and rise into the sky to join his brother. He tried his hardest to ignore the symbiot's final sorrowful words before he severed the link.

_:I tried that…it doesn't work.:_

**)(**

The sun was setting on the edge of the snow covered tundra when the Seekers finally returned to the devastated town turned Decepticon base. As they transformed to their root forms, Shockwave dramatically appeared from inside the building they had found Rumble in and strode towards them. "Well? Where is that treacherous Seeker's helm?"

Skywarp scowled at the insult aimed towards what he believed was his trine leader. Thundercracker merely twitched a wing before replying. "He wasn't at the coordinates you sent me. But if those were the same coordinates he set the pod to land at, then I can assure that it never landed there."

The scientist looked intrigued by this new information. "Oh really? And how did you come across this knowledge?"

"There is no sign of anything ever landing there. We should have only been a solar cycle behind them at most. Even with them landing before us, that wouldn't give Starscream enough time to clean up the area and make it seem as if nothing had happened to it if he were ever inclined to do so, which he isn't."

Shockwave nodded after cross-referencing the suggestion with his own knowledge of the Decepticon SIC and calculations for the period of time between said SIC's arrival and theirs and looked at the Seeker with an appraising stare that made Skywarp take a step closer as if to help Thundercracker if the scientist suddenly decided to dissect him then and there. "A highly probable possibility. Thankfully it appears as if Soundwave is oblivious to the current events taking place. That gives us time to search for-"

It was at that moment that Rumble decided to make his presence known by pinching the Seeker's sensitive protoform that lined the hold he currently resided in. Thundercracker released an unseemly squeak, causing Shockwave to stop mid-sentence and flare his optic in surprise while Skywarp snickered in the background, and abruptly opened his armor enough for the mech to slip through. Rumble popped out and landed somewhat gracefully between the two bigger mechs, striking a pose when he realized who had been talking to Thundercracker. "What are you looking at cock sucker?"

Skywarp's snickers turned into full-blown laughter as Shockwave stared down at the rude symbiot in shock and Thundercracker choked as the internet thoroughly explained the crude phrase Rumble had picked up. The only one who seemed unfazed was Rumble himself as he stuck his nose up to the scientist and primly marched into the base to find his current master. He only paused once to look back and smirk good naturally at the Seekers when he saw Thundercracker's dumbfounded expression and Skywarp gave him two thumbs up.

Shockwave shook his helm and returned his attention to the jets, thoroughly displeased. "Why was one of Soundwave's _spies_ residing in your torso?"

"Eh, don't worry," Skywarp waved off for Thundercracker as it seemed the older Seeker's systems had stalled for the moment. "Rumble's not as loyal to Soundwave as you would think. His brother left without a second thought when he found someone better; Rumble wouldn't hesitate to that either."

The scientist did not seem as comforted by this fact as Skywarp had hoped and simply glared at the two of them. "I will not have you two buffoons giving away our true objective to Soundwave. He is to be kept in the dark until I have properly assessed him."

"Why?" Thundercracker asked as he finally rebooted. No more searching things on the internet for him. The internet was a highly disturbing place. "You haven't even told us what it is we're looking for other than one of your escape pods. What's to say that by the time we reach that pod whatever you're really after isn't there? Shouldn't we know by now what it is we're searching for?"

Shockwave looked at them contemplatively. "We will react accordingly when that occurrence arises. Until then we will evaluate our next move."

Meanwhile inside the building, Rumble yelped as something suddenly smashed against the side of his helm upon entering. He growled and rubbed the sore spot as Laserbeak snickered and alighted onto Soundwave's extended arm. "What the frag was that for?"

"Where did you go?" Laserbeak countered with a hiss.

"None of your business birdbrain," Rumble insisted as he headed towards his bean bags. Upon sitting down, he ricocheted back to a stand as he noticed one important detail missing. "Where's my stuff?"

Laserbeak snickered once more while Soundwave finally moved but only to lift his balled servo. He methodically uncurled the fingers, and Rumble choked as the collection he had worked so hard over the years to collect fell to the ground in a ball of mashed components. "Wh-what did you do that for? I worked hard to get some of those things!"

"Excessive use of electricity," Soundwave uncaringly droned. "Draws attention from humans."

Rumble almost whimpered as a huge pede came down to crush the ball as if to finalize its destruction. It was sad that the loss of video games and DVDs would have such a strong effect on him, but what else did he honestly have nowadays? His brother had all but abandoned him in his madness, blasting off into space with _Barricade_ without even properly telling him why. He was never sent out to do anything because Soundwave considered his skills to be lacking when compared to Laserbeak or Frenzy; the missions Ravage was assigned involved things that were beyond his skill set most of the time. It was like he was deemed useless from the get go. Never as good as Laserbeak, or Ravage, or even _Frenzy_. Not worthy to help his brother, who blocked him out every time he even attempted to contact him via their private comm. link or the bond they shared.

He ignored the discussion Soundwave and Laserbeak had diverted onto and crouched down to pick up a piece of the steering wheel controller he had been using earlier. Handling it like a piece of delicate china, the mech turned it around as if by turning it over he could find the missing half before viciously throwing it across the building, breaking a window in the process without drawing any kind of attention. Just like always—he wasn't even worth a second glance.

_Screw. This. _

He wasn't stupid no matter how much Laserbeak tried to make him believe he was. He wasn't useless no matter how much _Soundwave_ made him feel like it. No matter how much he wished or pretended, the Communications mech standing before him was _not_, and never would be, _the Boss_, and he didn't deserve _any_ loyalty from the Cassette twins.

He thought back to Thundercracker's reaction to Starscream earlier, how the Seeker hadn't had any problems with differentiating between that Starscream and the Starscream considered to be part of his trine. While he knew the Seeker still hoped to one day find his brother (he felt the turbulent emotions from Thundercracker's EM field after all), he also knew that Thundercracker didn't create false fantasies like Skywarp was currently doing. Like Frenzy had…

…and where was Frenzy now? Clinging to Barricade, glitching something major and running around with an almost mindless objective to find the AllSpark. He had snapped after his final illusion of this Soundwave had been crushed, when he had been injured and required an intensive operation that left him in his new, more vulnerable form. Rumble had ordered the same procedure been done to him, to make him look like his twin and perhaps comfort said twin at the same time, but Frenzy hadn't even noticed because he had been more focused on Soundwave's reaction. And what had that reaction been?

Complete detachment.

Soundwave hadn't cared for Frenzy's condition. He had taken the intel gathered from the symbiot before he even allowed Hook to heal him, hacking the smaller mech in a way that made Rumble's anger nearly boil over the edge, and had simply sent the former-Cassette on another mission once the Constructicon had finished with him. Frenzy had been absolutely crushed. After returning from his mission barely clinging to life and the only source keeping him alive being his frantic brother, Soundwave _still _hadn't seen him as more than tool. Subsequently, that had been around the time that Thundercracker and Skywarp had come back online, and that discovery probably hadn't helped. The Seekers were brought back but they couldn't even have someone who cared whether they lived or died?

Maybe Rumble had stayed with Soundwave and Laserbeak because he too continued to dream of the Boss suddenly returning. Like he'd charge down for a night and wake up to the next day to find _their _Soundwave. And their Ravage and Beaky instead of the quadruped that carried a colony of Microcons in his tank or the slime ball with wings. He realized now that if he stuck to that type of thinking, then maybe one day something would happen and he too would snap and become as mad as Frenzy had. That wasn't a very appealing thought.

So…he had to get away. If he stayed here, confined to this shabby building with only Laserbeak and Soundwave as unwanted company, he'd go mad just from _boredom._ He had barely survived when he had the games and movies. Maybe Frenzy had realized his condition and left for that very reason, blocked out his brother to prevent the madness from seeping through the bond.

And he _knew_ his ticket to getting out of there stood just outside. Actually, he had _two_ tickets to freedom. Now to figure out an excuse…

"Shockwave is not to be trusted," Laserbeak was saying as Rumble finally tuned into the mechs' discussion. "I suggest keeping him within reach at all times if it is possible."

"Suggestion: acknowledged," Soundwave replied, and Rumble scowled. Before his revelation he would have been happy to hear when Soundwave spoke in the same fragmented way the Boss did since it didn't occur as often. Now he just felt the urge to purge, preferably on the fake's pede…or Laserbeak if he could reach the birdbrain. "Assessment of Seekers?"

Laserbeak scowled, making his face uglier than it usually was in Rumble's opinion. "While they don't appear completely loyal to Shockwave, we still have to consider any loyalty they may have for Starscream. Previous observations have revealed a dislike towards the Air Commander, but they are still Seekers, and the depth of Seeker loyalty to one another is still an unknown factor."

"Keep under surveillance," Soundwave concluded. "Laserbeak, new objective-"

"I'll do it!" Rumble piped in, drawing their somewhat surprised attention. Rumble put on his most humbling face and nervously stepped towards. "You guys have to continue that business with the Gould human, right? Neither of you can miss that." They looked unimpressed, so Rumble attempted another angle. "Plus I wanna make up for my blunder. They already trust me; Thundercracker even let me in his hold."

Laserbeak hissed at the somewhat intimate act for a mech not outfitted to support symbiots while Soundwave actually looked intrigued and Rumble could actually feel the last cube he had consumed making its back up his intake valve as he pretended to really want to please his…_master._

Ah, there it was—the taste of processed Energon regurgitating. _Yum._

"The Seekers already possess a previous relationship with you, therefor infiltration will be easier," Soundwave voiced out loud with a nod. "Rumble will accompany Seeker when they depart."

"And how do we know the _youngling_ won't betray us?" Laserbeak hissed, smirking as Rumble bristled at the mention of his age. Many assumed that because of the missions handed over to the twins that they were the average age of any old Decepticon. Rare knew that they were more around the Autobot's scout's age only a little older. It rankled them both to have others mention how young they truly were.

Soundwave stared at the former-Cassette with bright red optics before dismissing the distrust. "Rumble will remain loyal like Frenzy. Report every deca-cycle."

Rumble was shocked to hear the order, not because it was, well, a non-negotiable order but because it implied that Frenzy still remained in contact the Commutations Officer. That, that…_fragger!_ He found the time to report to Soundwave on a regular basis, but he didn't have time to answer the hails made by his own slagging _brother? _Oh, when Rumble got his servos on his brother again, they were going to have a long, detailed _discussion._ One that ended with a couple of dents and scratches.

Shockwave stepped back inside at that moment, and Rumble took the distraction as a chance to stomp back outside to Skywarp and Thundercracker. He kicked the first thing within reach and cursed. "I'm gonna kill that slag heap!"

Skywarp shoved the symbiot with the pede the smaller 'Con had just abused while Thundercracker simply sighed indulgently. "Why?"

"Because ever since he left Cybertron, he hasn't bothered to call me—not once! I gave him the benefit of doubt and thought maybe he was out of range or something, but _no._ The pitspawn kept in contact with Soundwave easily! I get the reasons for not using the sibling bond, but a comm. link aint got that worry. So that just means the slagger's _avoiding me!"_

Skywarp snarled and finally kicked Rumble after his continuation of "pede abuse." The kick wasn't harmful by any means because it caused Rumble to simply tumble backwards and into Thundercracker instead of across the barren town and into a structure on the other side. None the less, the mech cursed the Seeker's existence and creation in a _very_ vivid way that made Thundercracker scowl. "Must you use that vulgar language in every other sentence?"

"Of course I do because then I wouldn't be me," Rumble insisted as he stood back up. "And you slaggers better get used to it because I'm coming along."

"Really? Why?" Poor Thundercracker didn't like the excitement that coated his brother's questions.

"Because Soundwave wanted to keep an optic on you, and it was either me or Laserbeak, so you pitspawns better be grateful it was me!" He looked up at Thundercracker for a moment before diverting back to Skywarp. But the glance wasn't quick enough for the smarter Seeker to not catch the hidden meaning behind it. Rumble finally understood that standing around and waiting for a miracle to happen was a waste of time.

Of course, he had no idea what he was getting into now…

"So you'll be traveling with us?" Thundercracker reiterated, and Rumble snorted a response at the obvious. "I'm guessing that means you'll have to travel in one of our holds."

Rumble snapped his helm up to look at the Seeker; he didn't like that smug look. "Yeah, so?"

"To be granted access to mine, you'll have to follow a few more additional rules to the ones I gave earlier."

The symbiot glanced back at Skywarp, who smirked evilly as he knew Rumble would never take a chance with traveling with him because of his recklessness and tendency to warp without warning. That left the former-Cassette with Thundercracker and his new rules. "What are they?"

"One," Thundercracker started and surprised Rumble by snatching him up and shaking him roughly. "If you ever kick, hit, or _pinch_ me again, I'll immediately eject you and crush you with my own pede! The same goes for firing weapons if you think you can get by with that. Two, the nasty language stops now. I don't put up with it from Skywarp and I sure as pit won't put up with it from you."

"But you just cursed too!" Rumble insisted as he struggled to get free. Maybe going with the Seekers hadn't been such a good idea.

"Yes, but if you can't tell they don't saturate my conversations like yours. I don't care if you use it to insult someone in battle or insist on using it when you're not around me. But when you _are_ out of battle and you _are_ within hearing distance of me, I won't stand for it."

"What're you gonna do fragger? Leave me on my own? Psh! I'm just using you pansies to get away from here."

If he had been facing Skywarp at the moment, he would have seen the jet actually cringe and take a step back. Thundercracker's optics got a dark glint to them as he used his free servo to reach into his subspace and pull out a bottle of what looked like cleaning solution. Rumble caught sight of it and for once dropped his tough guy act to look at the mech incredulously and with a little dose of fear. "You _wouldn't."_

"Wouldn't I? I actually got the idea from _your_ Soundwave when I ventured to ask why you and your brother chose to curse like crazed animals around everyone else but toned it down when he was around. He even gave me the formula to create the solution he used, which, as you and _Skywarp_ know, while it tastes like rust warmed over, it does absolutely no harm to your internal systems." He shook the bottle ominously, making the solution inside slosh around and both former victims to flinch involuntarily. "Now, do you want to try me or not?"

Rumble shook his head as memories of what that solution could do came to him full force. Oh, the _taste_. That alone haunted him for weeks and even _years _afterwards, and the Boss had done that to him and Frenzy when they were still really young. That was when they had learned to never take his threats idly, even wishing they had taken Ravage's warning more seriously.

Thundercracker stared at him critically before releasing him, causing the little mech to crash to the ground with a grunt. "Now that that's settled, Shockwave's already given the orders to search around the area the pod was supposed to be in and fan out from there. We're free to do what we please in the search but have to report any find immediately."

"Like find 'Screamer," Skywarp added with a determined nod. "Let's _go!_ This white stuff is starting to get on my nerves."

Rumble watched the jet transform and take off without another word. "Does he _seriously_ not remember what snow is?"

Thundercracker released an upset sigh. "I don't know exactly what's going on in his head, but it's like he trying to repress certain things. Like the majority of our stay the first time on Earth. He remembers the pointless things, like brand names of food or concepts of cartoons, but prefers to forget the other things. I guess snow was just part of that list."

"Then I guess it's not a good idea to tell him where Vicky is." Thundercracker snapped his attention back to the symbiot after watching Skywarp zoom back and forth above their heads. Rumble shrugged. "Like I've said, Soundwave never wanted me to do _anything, _and I got curious; curiosity and boredom aren't a good combination for me. So I did a search on her name a couple of years ago. She's probably not even living there anymore with the way humans like to move around so much."

The cyan mech frowned. "…keep that to yourself. He gets a little…antsy whenever she's mentioned."

"What, 'cause he still thinks he's in love with her or something?" The Seeker glared and Rumble shrugged again. "Like he could have kept _that _a secret from _us._ Maybe dunderheads like Bonecrusher and Barricade and even Megatron, but we caught onto it pretty quickly. He better be happy the Boss simply deemed it as 'puppy love' like what the Dinobot and Beaky had going on."

"Just don't bring it up okay? He has a hard enough time dealing with Starscream. I don't want his hopes for the human to rise again." Rumble smirked, and Thundercracker could have slapped himself._ Of course_ the mech would interpret that information as a source of blackmail. "Alright, what do you want to stay quiet?"

"Lift the language ban and solution threat."

"_Fine. _But it'll be put back into immediate effect if you let one word of Victoria slip."

"Nice doing business with ya," Rumble concluded victoriously before flicking the snow off his pointy pede. "Now let's get outta here. Skywarp was right about the snow being annoying and I've had to deal with it for almost three decades now."

Thundercracker forced himself to remain still as Rumble scrambled up his form and into the hold, where he immediately transformed into a radio for a roomier ride. The Seeker sent a brief databurst to Shockwave, informing him of their departure, before joining his brother in the air. They immediately took off together with absolutely no plan beyond returning to the previous coordinates they had been given.

**)(**

"_You are in restricted air space. I order you to leave immediately or we will take action."_

_A burst of static flooded the radio before a gruff unknown noise answered._

"_I repeat, you are in restricted air space. Leave immediately or- whoa! What the hell just happened?"_

"_The other jet! It just- just vanished and appeared between me and Reynolds."_

"_How the-_"

The last few moments of the tape were a jumble of noise. What sounded like a sonic boom louder than the one given off by an average jet reverberated through the recording, followed by screams and shouts of terror as the pilots were picked off one by one. The gruff noise, like the grinding of gears, appeared on the tape two or three more times, almost sounding like it was _taunting_ the pilots.

The scarred man listening intently to the tape leaned back in his chair as it came to an end, threading his fingers together in a thoughtful gesture. "I take it you have more to show me than this."

Another man dressed head to toe in black clothing that kept his identity perfectly safe nodded somewhat eagerly. He knew that if he had only come with that recording that his leader would have sent him back to the lab without a second glance. "One of the jets, the one that lasted the longest, managed to broadcast a video back to us. I believe you will be most…intrigued to watch it."

He moved around the table to a computer monitor mounted on the conference room's wall, quickly clicking through a few files before finally bringing up said video. The leader stood up to get a closer look as the video _did_ turn out to be most intriguing. The jet that had taken the video wasn't situated at the best angle and the image quality was poor, but it was good enough to catch what needed to be.

Two unmarked, oddly colored jets, one a cyan blue and the other black with a combination of dark and light purple highlights, flew ahead of the camera along with the lead jet of the trio that had been on patrol. The purple one fell back, leading the man to believe that that whoever manned the blue one was in charge, before suddenly _vanishing_ and reappearing just off camera. The blue one didn't quite vanish from frame per say, but it took off at speeds that were just _impossible_.

After that the camera turned jerky, limiting the visibility of the destruction that occurred, but he could see enough to watch the purple and black jet perform crazy, yet smooth, maneuvers and vanish occasionally to throw his pilots into a frenzy before finishing them all off.

"What models are these?" he questioned after re-watching the video a few times.

The computer tech did a quick search before hesitantly giving him an answer. "They appear to be F-15 Eagles sir, though it seems as if a few personal modifications have been added to them."

"So they're privately owned," he concluded with ease as he leaned forward. "Stop the video."

His assistant scrambled to oblige, rewinding the video frame by frame until his leader was satisfied. He stepped forward to point at the screen. "Do you see that emblem?" The masked nodded as said emblem was pointed out. "Enhance it."

It took a few moments for the computer tech to get a clearer image of the symbol positioned on the angled wing of the jet, but he was finally able to accomplish it. He stared at the oddly shaped face (because that's what it looked like) displayed proudly in bright purple on the dark wing. "Have you ever seen something like that before? Commander?"

"As a matter of fact I have," the commander finally answered before waving a dismissing hand. "Send the image to me and start researching these jets. Find out anything you can: who privately owns jets; if a country has been researching teleporting technology; if any of those private owners are affiliated with the government. You know what to do."

"Um, s-sir!" the tech called hesitantly as the leader left. "There was one more thing I thought you would like to see."

"Hurry up then."

A new picture was brought up from on the screen, this time looking as if it had been taken by one of the cameras implemented in their pilot's helmets. The commander stopped short, surprise widening his eyes and stretching the scar above his left eye before smoothing back out into a neutral expression. "So, the owner is able to control the jet from afar. So are we."

"But sir! None of the equipment on our jets picked up on a wireless signal. We never even picked them up on radar, and if Sanders hadn't spotted them in the clouds we would have never known they were there."

The commander dismissed the tech once more before leaving the room altogether. He had a phone call to make, and if he knew his old companion like the way he knew he did, he never deviated from his set schedule, which had him falling asleep soon. After disconnecting all of the communication devices in his home of course.

Once he was within his soundproof office, he immediately dialed the number he had written on a sticky note beside the phone and waited somewhat impatiently for his old "friend" to answer. It didn't take long. "Who is this? How did you get my number? I don't give this number out to people. Which S7 bastard is this?"

"Calm yourself James. It's just me."

"Me who? I don't any 'me's. You're taping this conversation, aren't you? Trying to copy my voice so you can use it later! I'm onto you…"

The man chuckled as he leaned back in his chair. "Still as paranoid as you were in high school I see. I guess Sector 7 never really helped with that. What a shame. A short stint in the military would have been good for you, but you always said you were never a soldier like me."

There was silence from the other end of the line, and the man smirked as a clear image of his high school buddy's scrunched up face as his mind worked to solve the puzzle. "…Leland?"

"I haven't been called that in years. I go by the name Silas now. But that's beside the point. I called because I knew you could help me." Silas pulled up the image he had had the tech enhance on his personal computer. "That thing you were always babbling about while still working for Sector 7. Did it have a symbol somewhere on it? One that looked like a sharp angled face?" He smirked at the dumbfounded silence that permeated from the other end of the phone. "Good. Now I need you to tell me _all about it_ For old time's sake_."_

* * *

**AN: **Before anyone gets confused, this is still the '07 movie-verse. I just threw Silas in because he will have an influence on James later, and Sector 7 gets disassembled at the end of the first movie anyways. Why not add another human villain into the mix? Plus he'll be the perfect push off for later when the original planning for this story comes to an end.

That's it for now lovely readers ;P


	9. Boiling Points

**AN:**Surprise, surprise! I'm updating a little earlier this week because I'll be going out of town early, early Friday morning and won't return until around midnight Sunday. I've got no idea how the internet connection will be where I'm going, so instead of waiting I decided to get the chapter done and posted :)

"_Thinking"  
:Comm. Talk:  
_**~Bond Speech~**

Time Units  
Joor: ~1 hour  
Solar Cycle: 1 day  
Breem: 8.3 minutes

* * *

A New Version of Reality

Chapter Seven

Boiling Points

**It's not easy being a mother. If it were easy, fathers would do it. –**_**Unknown**_

* * *

Prowl liked to believe that he made himself pretty accessible to any Autobot who wished to speak to him. If he was busy at a certain period of time then of course he left notices outside his office door to deter company (not that _that_ ever kept Jazz away), but when he was out and about in the base and not speaking to anyone at the moment, he didn't have a problem with someone approaching him with a question.

It wasn't his fault others were too nervous to do so, and Prowl rarely went out of his way to approach _them._ If they couldn't find the courage to do it themselves, then the issue must not have been as important as they thought. He wasn't there to coddle them.

"_But this may have to be an exception,"_ he thought with a sigh as he turned to assess the second shadow he had acquired during the short daily scheduled joor of touring the base to assure it was still in tip-top condition (like Red Alert wouldn't let him know if something was wrong beforehand). He had to admit that he had never had someone so intent yet hesitant to speak with him at the same time. "Is there something you wish to speak to me about First Aid?"

The poor mech jumped in surprise at being suddenly addressed and twiddled his thumbs as his visor flashed slightly with nerves. It wasn't odd for the Protectobot to exhibit a nervous, almost shy type of behavior away from his fellow Protectobots or those he were more familiar with like Ratchet. Really, it almost seemed to go hand-in-hand with the Autobot medic's empathetic and compassionate nature.

It was just that sometimes those nerves tended to overpower him when he was in the presence of an officer. Prowl had seen him divert the conversation to Hot Spot or Groove when he could; become an uncontrollable stuttering mess when Optimus had been on the base; and now twiddle his thumbs as he hadn't been stalking the SIC for a reason. Ratchet said that it was because the medic-in-training was still relatively young and would eventually grow out of it as he continued to advance in his medical training. He could distinctly remember Sunstreaker making some rude comment at the time of the explanation, prompting Ratchet to assault him via wrench style, and quietly hoped that one of the things First Aid didn't pick up as his training continued was the CMO's legendary temper.

But he was digressing from the current problem, which involved a shy medic rebooting his vocalizer a few times before squeaking out a "yes." "Well?"

"I-it's about Sunstreaker," First Aid finally managed to get out while glancing over his shoulder as if expecting said front-liner to appear out of thin air and glower down at him. "I'm beginning to grow worried about him."

"I have already taken care of his sudden increase in violence," Prowl reassured, interpreting that to be the reason for the medic's worry. "He is currently working out his disciplinary sentence under the watchful eye of Red Alert."

"No, no, no!" the Protectobot rephrased hurriedly. "I'm sorry for not being clear, but it wasn't the worry of him turning violent against _me._ He's never even exhibited that behavior towards me. I mean he's rude towards me like he is to everyone else, but he's never seemed inclined to turn physical."

"Then what is it?" Prowl asked with a slight frown. What else could be the problem?

"I'm worried _for _him. He has been slightly more violent and irritable the last five solar cycles, but I believe that it might stem from something deeper than just annoyance with his surroundings." First Aid reached into his subspace to pull out a datapad and handed it to the SIC. "He came into the med-bay last cycle for his scheduled physical, and—per Ratchet's specific orders—I hooked him up to a spark monitor for the exam to, well, monitor his spark. I read over the readings more thoroughly after he left and noticed an anomaly."

He pointed out an erratic line on the pad. It looked completely identical to the line above it, but Prowl was no med-bot and decided not to read too much into it. "This is Sunstreaker's spark pulse by the end of the examination, which corresponds to when he began to display anger."

First Aid pressed a button underneath the lines, and they both watched as the readings rewound to earlier before the medic paused it again. Both lines were now at rest with the few discrepancies that accompanied a normal pulse rate. "Now watch carefully."

Prowl did so and watched as the readings were slowly fast-forwarded. The top line began to jump at odd intervals before it became erratic. Optic ridges shot up as the SIC witnessed Sunstreaker's spark react moments later. "Was there an outside stimuli to provoke this reaction?"

"No, not _outside,_" the medic said while accepting the pad that Prowl returned. "The top reading came from another spark that Sunstreaker is connected to, which is why the spark monitor picked up on it. Whoever he's _connected to_ was the one upset, and Sunstreaker simply feed off of it, whether he meant to or not. I'm willing to bet that that is the source of his recent behavior."

Prowl's door-wings twitched in thought. "Sideswipe must be becoming stressed from his head position at the Neutral camp. I will contact him imme-"

"It wasn't Sideswipe," First Aid interrupted with a quick shake of his helm. The Praxian's wings perked up even more with surprise at the abrupt interruption. "Please don't insult my intelligence as a medic. I took care of both of the Twins for a short period of time, and both of their sparks exhibit the same frequency due to the splitting phenomenon. That reading wasn't from Sideswipe's end of the bond. And it's not like I can completely overlook a third bond in play; Ratchet's the one who has overseen the majority of my training after all. That response came from that third party and you know it."

First Aid froze as he realized who spoke too and quickly backtracked. "I mean- I uh…I know it isn't any of my business, but you appear to be in the know of that aspect of Sunstreaker's personal life. Maybe you could speak to him? He, uh, always avoids personal questions even if it concerns something medical. If the Twins have a sparkmate in trouble…"

Prowl felt the inane urge to smile. Maybe even chuckle if the urge continued to grow as it was. But that would be rude and perhaps even freak the shy mech out enough to avoid him for the rest of his stay, so instead he wiggled his wings in a funny way (for him at least; Bluestreak did it all the time and it looked perfectly normal). "I assure you it is not a sparkmate. But I will speak to him about it; your suggestion is backed by enough evidence to ensure that."

The Protectobot nodded in relief and stepped aside for the commanding officer to head towards the surveillance room. Prowl took a step forward before pausing and awkwardly patting the medic on the shoulder. "Your confidence and medical abilities are increasing…good job."

First Aid nodded erratically, and Prowl continued as if nothing had happened. Jazz had said he needed to improve his attitude to boost morale since the saboteur had been leaving with Prime. Well, _there you go Jazz._ He could be nice and encouraging when he wanted to be. Just ignore the fact that First Aid seemed more freaked out by the gesture than encouraged.

Job well done if he did say so himself.

Leaving the medic behind, Prowl traveled through the small base he was temporarily stationed at. Passing Autobots would respectfully nod in his direction while they passed, and he returned the nods with his own. The base was small enough that he knew most of them by name, but he didn't regularly correspond with them. He was normally too busy training up the soldiers that would be left behind when Prowl and his team left. Technically, his team should already be preparing to leave and follow Optimus' team to Earth, but Prowl didn't have the level of confidence he should have for the Autobots that would be left behind. The officers still needed a little more training in both his and Red Alert's opinion.

Eventually he made it to the surveillance hub and stepped inside after using his officer's code to grant himself entrance. He almost smirked as he took in the scene before him.

Now there was a reason why Prowl was head of the Autobot's Tactical Division as well as Second-in-Command, and that reason wasn't just limited to his efficiency in planning strategies to eliminate Decepticons. If that had been all, then the other officers wouldn't have been so confident in leaving him in charge of discipline as well. Each punishment was handled with the same strategical precision as a base raid, and he knew how to make a troublemaker suffer when he wanted them to.

Sunstreaker was a repeat offender, just like his twin. As would be expected, the Twins had become immune to the drawling boredom that accompanied monitor day. So, Prowl had to make the front-liner suffer in some other way.

"-of a body at height h is given by Ep = mgh (or Ep = Wh, with W meaning weight). This expression is valid only over small distances h from the surface of the Earth. Similarly, the expression for the maximum height reached by a vertically projected body with initial velocity v is useful for small heights and small initial velocities only. I tell you Sunstreaker, I am highly looking forward to traveling to Earth and engaging in much more detailed discussion with these 'humans' about the formulas they select to use in order to calculate their needs. They are a fascinatingly advanced culture while at the same time lacking-"

And off Perceptor went on another subject. To Prowl's immense pleasure Sunstreaker looked as if he was about to lunge across the room and strangle the poor, oblivious scientist with his own servos. It even appeared that Red Alert had long ago plugged himself into the monitors to keep out the scientific lesson the two mechs were unwillingly being given.

The scientist had been the only one informed of what the little group had gone through and not because they had all agreed that he would be the only mech to even vaguely understand the occurrence. No, it was because _Wheeljack_ couldn't keep his mouth shut. Before the war had started (and subsequently before Ratchet could track down the engineer), Wheeljack had confided in his fellow "brother in science," and Perceptor had taken it surprisingly well. Or as well as Perceptor could ever take anything.

With Wheeljack spearheading his interest, the microscope had jumped head first into research on these "humans." He found the race and its planet endearingly fascinating and managed to even dig up information from the ancient archives of Cybertron while Optimus had been busy filling his new role of working with Megatron before the war had erupted. Apparently their ancestors had discovered the planet ages ago, but the knowledge had been lost just like the Space Bridge technology that Sentinel Prime would later claim as his own.

The only reason Perceptor wasn't currently on Earth with Wheeljack was because the group had unanimously agreed that he wasn't ready to actually meet a real human. Not that he was irresponsible like the Twins, but because…he just wasn't _ready._ He still viewed them as specimens rather than sentient beings, not to mention he was the most socially awkward mech around, and it showed with his scientific babble that almost put Bluestreak's motor mouth to shame and inability to pick up other mechs' disinterest.

"Perceptor," Prowl tactfully interrupted, drawing the attention of the scientist and yellow front-liner to him. "I am here to relieve you of the remainder of your monitor duty."

"Oh!" Perceptor exclaimed with surprise. "Is my duty over already? My, how time flies."

Prowl saw the _"Thank Primus!"_ expression that flitted across Sunstreaker's face as the red and blue microscope bumbled about before finally leaving. The Praxian immediately took the seat that had been vacated and flipped through the logs the previous user had been categorizing according to Red Alert's preferences for easy access later. Red Alert _never_ deleted anything and that amount of video, sound bites, and lists of when, where, and who accesses the computers on base took a lot to keep organized.

While flipping through the logs and putting them in the correct folders with barely a thought, the strategist snuck a glace over at Sunstreaker, who sat slumped in his seat and mindlessly stared at the wall of monitors. How best to approach this situation? Prowl almost knew the Twins better than they knew themselves. Neither was likely to—what phrase did Jazz use?—"spill their guts" for him, not even Sideswipe though the red front-liner acted more approachable than his brother.

Perhaps he could start off slow and ease his way into it. What would interest the front-liner enough to speak though? Jazz told him that using battle tactics, Decepticons, or stating the obvious in an obtuse sort of way wasn't the best way to begin a conversation. Sunstreaker _was_ always preening about his paint job…

"Stop staring at me!" Prowl blinked in surprise as the yellow mech suddenly turned to snarl at him. "If you have something to say then just say it already. Jazz's 'conversation starter tips' don't work for you."

Red Alert looked up at them, noticed that Perceptor had been replaced by Prowl, and scowled while unhooking himself from the monitor. "What are you doing here? You don't even have surveillance duty for this cycle. You were supposed to be having a meeting with Hot Rod right now."

"He knows of my delay," Prowl assured him before dropping his attempts at being more "sociable" for the day. Jazz would never know that he didn't attempt the full joor. "I just finished personally speaking to First Aid, and it came to my attention that-"

"I'm an irrational, violent, malicious, insensitive, rude slagger?" Sunstreaker butted in rudely, proving his point that quickly. "Sorry but Ratchet's already made that medical discovery. Tell the little wannabe that if he wants to get published he should go find his own medical anomaly."

Prowl sat quietly with his wings tensed in a higher position than normal due to the disgruntlement he felt at being interrupted, but he allowed Sunstreaker to finish his self-analysis before continuing. "That was not what I was attempting to say. First Aid merely pointed out that your behavior of late may have had a deeper meaning behind it, yet you refused to take up his offer of speaking of it when, as a medical personal, he volunteered to listen."

"And what? You suddenly decided to get all philosophical or some slag and delve into the deeper meaning of life? If I tell you I was abused as a youngling and I had a carrier complex would you leave me alone?"

"First off, I am always 'philosophical' as logic tends to be the striving force behind all of my decisions and everyday life," the SIC started patiently, ignoring the watchful optics of Red Alert burning into his back. "With that in mind, I know of your past in the gladiatorial pits of Kaon and am completely aware that that began at a very young age for both you and your brother. Seeing as you were forced into the situation at a young age leads me to believe that both a sire and carrier were absent from your lives, supporting the need for you to enter the pits and negating the possibility of you suffering a 'carrier complex'. That being said, I know that the pits had a very impactful and lasting effect on you both and perhaps psychological problems have stemmed from that, yet that does not dictate your everyday social behavior to the extreme that it has been for the past five days."

Prowl paused, and Red Alert silently clapped in the background while Sunstreaker's scowl deepened. "To add to that is First Aid's medical evidence of one of your bonds being the instigator of your agitation, and that it does not originate from Sideswipe. I was under the belief that your connection to Victoria was limited and fairly weak."

Sunstreaker just continued to scowl and remain rigid in his seat, making Prowl sigh. "I do not normally concern myself with other people's personal affairs, but this is beginning to affect not only your own duties but others around you as well, and as the highest ranking officer on the base, I am obliged to know what is going on. You have sent four others to the med-bay, snapped at countless others for no apparent reason, spent a total of nearly one solar cycle in the brig, another cycle shining the floors of the base, and have now been dealt three megacycles of monitor duty with the constant company of Red Alert and whomever else I wish to assign surveillance duty. Unless you would like me to schedule a trip to the base that Rung is currently stationed at and undergo a thorough psychological evaluation, as that is the next step I would be forced to take to remedy your performance, I suggest you tell me what is going on."

Red Alert actually looked quite thrilled at the option of sending the yellow mech off to another base; Sunstreaker…not so much. Rung had paid a little visit to one of the bases they were stationed at before, and the front-liner had taken one look at him, snarled to his brother that he didn't like the mech, and avoided the psychologist for the rest of his stay. It didn't help that one of the patients Rung had been helping at the time went off on a little rampage that required the Twin's help to subdue, subsequently and horrendously scratching Sunstreaker's paint job.

So the yellow mech frowned at the option and turned back to face the monitors. A near silent groan came from Red Alert as the offer wasn't jumped on and turned back to his own work, figuring that Prowl wasn't about to get anything out of Sunstreaker no matter how patient he was. The Security Director was forced to jump out of his chair with surprise half a breem later when Sunstreaker suddenly brought his fist down on the console.

"What the- what did you?" Red Alert stuttered as he took in the damage. He made odd groaning sounds as he hurried over to the console, throwing a suddenly tired looking front-liner out of the way with surprising strength and kneeling down to take in the damage. "_My baby!_ How could he have done this to you? There's no one here I trust enough to fix you!"

"Who needs to have a chat with Rung now?" Sunstreaker sneered, though Prowl could see that the majority of the spite he would usually exhibit with a statement like that wasn't there.

Prowl silently offered the chair that Red Alert had been in after moving it a little closer to him, and Sunstreaker sighed before reluctantly sitting in it. He rubbed the servo he had just used on the console. "The bond I share with Victoria usually is weak, even when Sideswipe's trying to make it stronger. We're just too far away to strengthen it, which is if fine by me. It's enough of a hassle being bonded with a dimwit like Sideswipe; now I have to deal with a human and ultimately Bluestreak because he's connected to her too, and on even a lower level I'm connected to _you_ because you have a guardian bond with Bluestreak."

Prowl hummed in true understanding while ignoring Red Alert's frantic, hushed voice on the other side of the room. "Spark bonds are a highly complex matter, and it does not help that it is one of the least researched medical subjects. Though, it does prove logical that you would inherit other bonds when you create one with another. Trines, as Ratchet has discovered, are a perfect example. A Seeker will go to great lengths to find the perfect mate, and even after that they must gain the approval of the rest of trine because the other two members will inherit that bond as well. It may not be as strongly felt by the others, but a bond that is ill-fit for one member can throw the others off.

"But I digress. Something is happening for Victoria's emotions to reach out to you and your brother."

"Like I would know what that is," Sunstreaker snapped with forced anger, though Prowl could see the tired look that had slowly been entering the front-liner's optics. "I can feel when my brother is overly happy or as a high as the tallest pillar in Iacon, and I can even feel Bluestreak sometimes when he's done something to make him feel…warm and fuzzy. Thank Primus I can't feel _you,_ but from Victoria it's never good. She's either scared, or in emotional pain, or _aggravated beyond_ _fragging possible._ And I haven't been able to get in a decent recharge cycle for four solar cycles now!"

Sunstreaker stopped to snarl to himself about "stupid humans" and rub the planes of his face. The black and white commanding officer watched the behavior with small interest as the mystery behind the mech's recent actions was finally solved. If Victoria's emotions were that strong, coupled with the lack of defragmenting that would take place while in recharge, Prowl could easily see the resulting increase in irritation, "short fuses," and reports of some mechs finding Sunstreaker staring blankly off into space before snapping at them for no reason.

"There is nothing that can be done about Victoria," Prowl started slowly, and Sunstreaker turned to glare at him. "But I can suggest to First Aid that you be put into a medical stasis for a brief period of time. It will help some—though not as much as a proper recharge—and perhaps by the time you arouse from that state, whatever is wrong with Victoria will be over."

Sunstreaker didn't appear very fond of the suggestion, but eventually nodded in agreement. He didn't like being put into a medical stasis, as it normally left him disconnected and numb for a while after awakening and he never liked being put into that vulnerable of a state, but if he didn't do _something_ soon, he was bound to do something that even he would regret. Like seriously killing Perceptor like he had been about to do earlier before Prowl had sent the microscope away. "Fine, but let me talk to Sideswipe first. He'll be on the first ship here if my side of the bond goes numb all of sudden."

Prowl nodded and turned away as Sunstreaker tapped the keys on the console to establish a video comm. Instead, he turned to Red Alert and frowned when he saw the SD petting the dented console. "I believe we may have to call Rung after all."

**)(**

Victoria was positive that if Megatron himself had shown up on her front porch dressed like the White Rabbit from _Alice in Wonderland_ and dancing the Macarena she would have never noticed. At the moment her mind was too firmly set on auto-pilot to notice _anything _as she slowly completed another circuit through the house. She groaned and started again when she realized it hadn't helped.

Sleep seemed like a thing of the past, and what was sad was that it had only been five days since it began. The first night with the sparklings had been fine—no problems because they had been too exhausted from that night's events to wake up until morning. The second night had been okay—Recall had only woken once to take an Energon bottle before falling back into a somewhat restless sleep cuddled up behind Star, and Star had awoken a little later with the urge to empty his tank. Now that had been an experience Victoria had never put much thought into before.

The third night had been _horrible._

Victoria had been shocked awake by a sudden shrieking that had come from the sparklings' room, and after rushing across the hallway without a second thought, she had found Recall sitting up in the bed with tears of diluted Energon simply pouring down his cheeks. Thinking that he might have just been experienced a bad memory, Victoria had sent a worried Wheeljack back to his barn and began working to calm the sparkling down.

It hadn't worked. _Nothing_ she did could calm him down. He refused to be fed, always knocking the bottle away with an unhappy grunt; walking around and bouncing him did nothing. Giving him toys, making funny faces, singing—it all failed. She had even taken him outside on the second night the behavior had shown to see his favorite mech, but Bluestreak's attempts were just as useless as hers.

The oddest thing though was that the day after, Recall would behave as if nothing had happened. He giggled and smiled, got into mischievous trouble, and mimicked like he normally did. He was even halfway through learning a simple hand game—_"patty cake"_ her tired mind provided—with Bluestreak.

God, did Victoria wish she could do the same. She hadn't gotten a proper night's sleep since this started, being up and down during the day because her body just wasn't used to sleeping during that time and going for hours with Recall at night. And she had a feeling the pattern would continue until they figured out what was happening.

Wheeljack had theorized that it might have been the absence of Recall's brother/sister because there was nothing physically wrong with the sparkling. He didn't have a sensitive tank and the small cuts that he might obtain during his "adventures" around the house wouldn't get a reaction like this hours later. Perhaps it was just when the sparkling cycled down for the night that the bond it had with that missing sparkling reached out and, when it didn't find that sparkling near, caused Recall to cry.

Whatever was the cause, Victoria just wished it would _stop._ Aside from her desperate need to have a proper sleep, it broke the woman's heart to hear Recall cry so pitifully. The cries always started loud, attracting the attention of the whole household, and began to dwindle down around the second hour of continuous screaming, becoming soft cries, until finally all he could manage were uncontrollable intervals of tearful hiccups. She just couldn't see how the sparkling had the energy to be happy during the day after crying all night.

"Sweetie, what is _wrong?_" Victoria now asked tiredly as Recall began another a screaming fit after a short period of hiccups. He clung to her tightly as she sat on the edge of the couch. "I don't know what to do for you."

She reached over to the other end of the couch and grabbed the stuffed bunny that she had picked out with Wheeljack on a trip into town. Since Bluestreak's holo-generator was currently out of order, the engineer had been the one to accompany Victoria into town to pick up things for the sparklings. On top of getting things like bottles and sippy cups for Star (because the sparkling was more of a toddler than baby like Recall), they had picked out a number of toys to keep the children entertained and (hopefully) away from the stray things in Wheeljack's barn.

Star's favorite toy had been a remote controlled jet they had just happened to stumble upon; Recall's was a fluffy, brown stuffed rabbit, which was why Victoria attempted to give it to him. He had spent the whole day he had first received it cuddling it to death and showing it off to anyone who stopped to admire it. He also tended to drag it around wherever he crawled, and over the course of the brief period the toy had been in his possession it had accumulated a startling amount of dirt, dust, and other unidentifiable stains.

Recall let out a hesitant chirp when he saw his bunny and tentatively reached for it. Victoria could have jumped for joy as she happily handed it over and watched him hold it closely for a moment. She was able to conveniently forget what always happened afterwards, what he had done for the last five nights, as her body slumped into the couch and actually began to relax…

…until Recall pointedly tossed the bunny across the room and started a new round screams.

Something inside the woman snapped. Whether it was from the lack of sleep, or worry, or _anger_ towards the person who had separated these two precious sparks—Victoria just…snapped.

She roughly took a hold of the sparkling under the arms and held him away, ignoring how he frantically attempted to grab her. She stared at him desperately as tears skimmed down his cheeks and his cries continued. "What do you want? I don't know what to do! Nothing I can think of seems to help. I've tried singing, and feeding you, and giving you your bunny; Bluestreak drove you around, Wheeljack tried putting you in his hold, and I tried lying down with you and Star in hopes it would keep you from crying in the first place! Nothing works and I just –I just…"

Victoria stared into the bright blue, tear-filled optics that stared back at her with surprise and a small hint of fear. The burning sensation of oncoming tears filled her eyes, and she gently placed her forehead on his, pulling the chirping sparkling closer in the process. "I just want you to be _okay. _There's something wrong, and I wanna be able to fix it. But I can't do anything because I'm tired and irritable, and all you do is _cry."_

Recall sniffled a bit and brought his hands up to grip her head and press closer to her. They sat there, foreheads pressed together, for ten, blissful minutes before Recall's little engine stalled and he let out a loud cry.

Victoria groaned and mechanically moved him around with the intention of standing up when the wailing form was gently plucked from her slack hold. She blinked in confusion and it took a moment to even realize that Recall had been taken from her. When she was finally able to focus, she noticed that Wheeljack's holoform was standing in front of her with the still upset sparkling situated on his hip and clinging to the lab coat that always accompanied the form.

"Go and get some sleep," Wheeljack gently insisted over the wails. "You've been going non-stop for over five days now. I can handle the bitlet for tonight."

Instead of sighing in relief or worshiping the very ground the engineer stood on, Victoria groaned and clasped her hands over her face. "I _can't._ I'd never be able to sleep when I can hear his crying. It just doesn't feel right."

"Well then…go outside and sleep with Bluestreak. He won't mind you crashing in his alt-mode; he's actually the one who suggested it."

The brunette looked up into Wheeljack's insistent and paternal face before slowly nodding and getting up. She hesitantly rubbed sparkling's back as he buried his face into Wheeljack's shoulder, muffling the wails for a moment. "Are you sure you got him? I think I might be able to hold off for a little longer."

As an answer, the engineer angled his body so that he could lightly nudge her towards the backdoor with his unoccupied hip. "_I've got this._ You just go get some rest before you completely collapse."

Victoria finally gave in and headed toward the door, throwing a glance over her shoulder as Wheeljack vanished into the kitchen, his calm voice barely noticeable over Recall. As she passed the stairs, she paused and wearily looked up them. The dark figure and bright red optics of Star sitting at the top of the staircase greeted her, and a new wave of guilt washed over her.

The Seekerlet was surprisingly well behaved when these episodes happened. Victoria had even seen him attempting to calm Recall down with coos and reassuring clicks, cuddling, and even trying to extend his small EM field to cover Recall's erratic one, actually succeeding in keeping the sparkling's first cries somewhat contained. Wheeljack had been thrilled to hear about that, saying that it gave a good indication of what Star's position would be in a trine. Of course, that had brought on a whole new round of questions of why he had been abandoned with the other two sparklings.

Victoria greatly appreciated the Seekerlet's attempts even if she wasn't able to show him that at the time, and she knew that he was getting just about as much sleep as she was nowadays. Right now, she tiredly extended her arms in an inviting gesture and said, "Come on Star. Let's go get some sleep with Blue."

Star hesitated for a fraction of a second before nimbly climbing down the staircase to cling to her arm. During the past few days, it became apparent that the age difference between him and Recall was much greater than they might have anticipated. Where Recall still struggled with crawling from time to time, Star had already graduated to walking and then running in a span of two days. He could drink his Energon from a sippy cup with ease whereas Recall still needed to be bottle fed, and how could she forget his insistence with working with Wheeljack? Not just watching the engineer, but actually _helping. _The Seekerlet soaked up knowledge like a little metal sponge, and they had actually celebrated him putting together his first motor (with the help of Wheeljack of course).

Although he did seem mature in those aspects, they were constantly reminded that he wasn't even old enough to be considered a youngling yet. He constantly pitched fits when he didn't get his way. Recall was playing with a toy he wanted? He'd take it away and then screech when Bluestreak forced him to give it back. Wheeljack wouldn't let him "play" with a highly concentrated acidic solution? He'll roll onto his front and kick and punch the floor while screaming at the top of his vocalizer. Victoria told him it was time for bed even though he was in the middle of watching a two-part documentary on airplanes? Well, he'd be too tired for a full-blown fit, but he'd growl and glare at her all the way up to bed and then refuse to let her tuck him in.

The only thing that seemed puzzling was that Star refused to speak anything other than "sparkling." Normally a sparkling who was already running around was beginning to say their first words, and with Star's intellect they had expected complete sentences by now. But no, the Seekerlet continued to communicate through clicks, growls, and other assorted sounds just like Recall did.

Now he emitted a somewhat subdued click as they left the wailing behind and stepped out onto the back porch. The cries sounded much less awful from outside, and Victoria imagined that that was likely why it had taken Wheeljack so long to intervene. The brunette absently reached up to reassuringly pat Star on the helm as they slowly made their way over to where Bluestreak was parked.

His door popped open quietly, and Victoria didn't wonder about the roomier-than-normal interior as she crawled in after encouraging Star to go in first. Bluestreak started up silently, switching his radio on to play soft music in the background. "You wanna go anywhere in particular?"

"No," Victoria answered, her voice slightly muffled as she curled up in the almost-bed-like interior Bluestreak had managed to convert his seats into. "You don't even have to go anywhere if you don't want to."

The mech hummed and gently backed up to drive around the house and down the driveway. "I think I could go for a little drive. Wheeljack said it would make it easier for you to fall asleep if we weren't just parked outside of the house. I actually think driving around is also an excellent strategy to induce sleep. I looked it up on the internet, and driving a human child around is a pretty good way to get them to sleep, though I don't think it's particularly encouraged because it puts a child into the habit of only being able to be put to sleep while you're driving. Oh, did you know-"

Star clicked in slight irritation as the mech kept going in a quiet voice that made his optics dim, and he curled up next to his human caretaker, who had been before Bluestreak had even began to speak.

**)(**

A giggle, a quiet shuffling, and then a squawk of displeasure was what greeted Victoria upon waking up several hours later. She cracked one eyelid open and smiled at the sight of Recall curled up on top of Star's chest, cooing and cuddling into the Seekerlet with unadulterated joy.

The music that had been quietly playing in the background stuttered to a stop and Bluestreak's whispered voice replaced it. "_Recall!_ I said I'd let you in if you didn't bother them; jumping on top of Star is the exact opposite of not bothering."

The sparkling beeped and looked around for the source of the voice. He had never been inside one of the Autobots when he wasn't crying and didn't realize that the voice was coming from Bluestreak. He tumbled off of Star, making him grunt happily and roll closer to Victoria to try and fall back asleep, and started crawling around Bluestreak's interior, poking at anything and everything he could get his little hands on. He squealed when he managed to make it around to one of the vents and Bluestreak let out a cold gust of air into sparkling's face. The vent was immediately sealed off in reaction to the squeals. "No, no, no! You're supposed to be _quiet."_

Victoria decided to give Bluestreak a break and sat up to stretch, groaning at the stiffness that had come over her during the night. Recall knocked at the vent one more time before abandoning in favor of tackling the woman. She chuckled tiredly and patted his coils and springs. "I'm awake. What time is it?"

"A little after one," Bluestreak answered in a somewhat subdued tone. "I didn't mean to wake you both up before you wanted to. It's just, Wheeljack brought Recall out earlier, and he kind of got sidetracked with trying to fix my holo-generator, and Recall crawled over here and started hitting on my door, and…yeah. That's kinda how we got in this situation."

The woman hummed and looked around for a moment in confusion. "If it's around one in the afternoon, then why is it so dark?"

"Oh!" The dark tint that had appeared on the mech's windows suddenly vanished, allowing the strong light of the afternoon sun to stream in undeterred. "I tinted the windows so that the sun wouldn't disturb you two. I guess now that you're awake…"

Victoria squealed as she was suddenly blinded and ducked back down to hide her face. "Not all at once Blue! I think you blinded me."

"Whoops." The tint returned, though it wasn't nearly as dark as it had been. "I didn't think about that. Sorry."

She just groaned and continued to hide her face even as Recall attempted to move the hands that covered her face. After a few minutes, she finally allowed the sparkling to have his way and blinked continuously as Recall went about his morning ritual.

Whenever the sparkling completely woke every morning, first he would wake up Star either by grabbing the Seekerlet's growing wings or crawling on top of him, just like she had just seen him do. Next he would wait until Victoria came into the room to see what already had Star squawking (like she didn't know by now), and he would immediately attach himself to her. After a little cuddling and cooing, he would lean up to give her their habitual Eskimo kiss before she dragged them downstairs for their breakfast Energon. The rest of the day tended to be spontaneous with the occasional episode of scheduled planning, like when he settled down for his afternoon nap or when he spent an entire hour at the same time every day to sit down and stare mindlessly up at the TV with his bunny clutched to his chest; at least what he chose to watch was somewhat educational.

Star's schedule was usually focused around what Wheeljack did. He always spent as much time in the barn as he could, which was why his schedule was dictated by Wheeljack since he wasn't allowed in there whenever the engineer was outside of it. At other times, he preferred to sit off to the side alone and play with the puzzles and other toys that had been given to him, but his self-isolation didn't hide the jealous looks he would get if Recall was given more attention than him. That had prompted Victoria to sit down and play with the Seekerlet, even if he puffed up with superiority and acted like allowing her to play with him was a huge hassle. His little ego didn't stop him from seeking her approval whenever he finished a puzzle or putting a model airplane together and fluffing up with genuine happiness when she praised him.

Recall gurgled as he finally rubbed his nose against hers and let her go to continue exploring around the space. Victoria sighed and sat up to watch the sparkling's circulation. "Jeez, I don't think I've ever slept like that. It was I like I was out and nothing could wake me up."

"I thought you were dead at one point," Bluestreak happily provided as he gradually allowed the sun to filter in. "But then I felt you through the bond and realized that your heart was still beating, so you couldn't have been dead. Star on the other hand was the complete opposite of you. He really didn't like being inside of me and even pinched me once or twice before I threatened to throw him out on the side of the road if he didn't stop. I guess it had an effect because he stopped and kind of pathetically curled up beside you."

"Bluestreak!" Victoria said with immense surprise at the cheerful mech's confession. "How could you threaten a sparkling like that?"

"He was _pinching_ me, and I was still kind of irritated from earlier when you were. You should probably close off your end of the bond by the way. Lately your emotions have been really strong, and they're sort of rubbing off on me."

The human felt mildly offended that he was (inadvertently or not) placing the blame for _his_ actions on _her._ She huffed and forced his door open to get out. Recall twittered after her when he was done playing with Bluestreak's radio controls, and Star crawled out last when he realized he wasn't going to get back to sleep. Once everyone was cleared, Bluestreak transformed, fluttering his door-wings with a stretch. "Where's Wheeljack?"

"Over there," Bluestreak answered while pointing at the barn where the engineer was rummaging through the scrap pile, most likely in search for a component to fix the Praxian's generator. "Where else would he be in the middle of the day? It's not like he has a social life outside of us."

Victoria glanced back, shifting from offended to mildly confused at the normally happy mech's rude attitude. She'd only asked a simple question that required a simple answer. She shook her head and hurried over to the older mech before he could become thoroughly distracted by the sparklings, who had crawled/ran ahead and were now clinging to his pedes. It was funny that the only thing that could distract Wheeljack from his work was a pair of curious sparklings wanting to play with him.

"Wheeljack," Victoria started as the engineer abandoned his search to laugh and playfully push the sparklings off his pedes. "How did you do last night?"

"It wasn't that bad after he started calming down," Wheeljack answered, tickling the "he" they spoke of. "I sure don't envy you though. If I had known it was_ that_ bad, I would have tried helping a lot sooner. You just seemed like you had it under control."

"That's 'cause she thinks she can everything on her own."

She ignored the hushed comment made by Bluestreak, who had followed them, and continued with Wheeljack. "You guys waste a lot of energy when you have to use the generators, and I know that making Energon is a little harder and more time consuming with two more mouths to feed. Besides, before last night I _did_ have it under control."

"Yeah right."

"Okay, what is your problem?" Victoria finally snapped as she turned to address Bluestreak. His door-wings hiked up and he crossed his arms in offense as she glared up at him. "You were fine when I woke up and now you're just being an asshole."

"Well _you've _been cranky for the last few days. Why can't I?"

"Uh," Wheeljack stuttered while glancing between the glaring mech and human. "Why don't you both just calm down? Obviously we've all been a little stressed out with the sparklings-"

"Maybe you should focus more on getting that sparkling away from that man than getting 'cranky' at me for no reason."

"And maybe you should _open your eyes_ and realize that your prejudice has made us waste five days of searching."

Wheeljack snapped his helm back and forth between the two before leaning down to pick up the puzzled sparklings. "Alright apparently this just can't be held in for any longer. You two get out the frustration you've got bouncing back and forth between your bond. I'll be over here doing something with the sparklings."

The engineer was completely ignored as he shuffled around them and headed to a shadowed area on the other side of the yard. Meanwhile Victoria was glaring angrily up at Bluestreak. "My eyes don't need to be 'opened.' I know that man took that sparkling, and it's not my fault that you two can't see that."

"We don't see it because there's _nothing there_," Bluestreak insisted, leaning down so he could look her directly in the eye, optics a hard icy blue that almost resembled Prowl's. "Me and Wheeljack have been watching him almost non-stop for _five days_. There is no EM field coming from his house like the one we picked up at the crash site. There's no indication of _any_ Cybertronian life. The only time he leaves his house is for a two hour period between noon and two, which corresponds with the time we saw him the other day, and an hour between six and seven, which also means he wouldn't have seen the pod crashing to Earth. No one visits, no one calls—he's just a lonely man who happens to be a little different than you."

"A lonely man who just randomly attacks people when they show up on his porch? I saw him before he started putting on this act Bluestreak, and even if he doesn't have the sparkling now, he did at one point!"

A gush of hot air blew across her as Bluestreak huffed and threw his arms up in a fed-up manner. "And what makes _you, _a simple little human,so much better than _us,_ two beings from a way more advanced race, to be able to know, for a definite fact, that he's involved?"

Victoria flinched at the insult, beginning to realize that this pointless argument was getting out of hand but unable to back down. "I don't know. It's just a niggling feeling in the back of my head."

"What, like that 'motherly instinct' you claim to have around Star and Recall? Fat lot of good _that_ did. You can't even properly comfort a crying sparkling when he really needs it!"

Even before the words had properly left his mouth, Bluestreak knew he had gone too far. His optics lost their hard edge and brightened as he took in the crushed expression that flickered across the human's face and the overwhelming pain/failure that washed over him from her end of the bond. He quickly attempted to fix what he had just done, but knew it might be too late considering that the bond was now heavily blocked and a neutral stance had fallen over her. "I- I'm sorry Vicky! I didn't mean to say that. It just kind of came out, and with all the stress lately an-and the worry. I just-"

Bluestreak desperately clambered to a stand and shuffled after her as Victoria stoically walked away. He whimpered at the cold vibe coming from her and ignored how Star and Wheeljack stared at them while Recall remained oblivious. "Vicky please!"

"You know what?" Victoria started, suddenly twisting around to face him. The muscle above her eye twitched at his forlorn face. "You and Wheeljack seem perfectly capable of taking care of them. Me and my instincts have only been getting in the way. Because they don't apply to Cybertronian young. Wheeljack makes a great father and you make a great brother. I'm the only one that's useless around here. After all, I'm just a 'simple little human.'"

"That isn't what I meant!" Bluestreak cried as he tried to stop her. But he couldn't unless he physically restrained her or threw the station wagon she angrily clambered into across the yard. "Just wait and let me talk."

The mech watched, door-wings drooping at an all-time low, as the old car tore down the driveway. The smoke from the car seemed like some kind of omen to his depressed processor. He stood there for a moment, attempting to reach Victoria through the bond with a sorry pulse aimed at her solid defense before sighing in defeat and returning to the backyard.

The first thing he noticed was Star's unforgiving glare, the Seekerlet being smart enough to conclude that the Praxian had run off his main caretaker, and Wheeljack's pitying optics. He sighed and chose to watch Recall, the only one not paying any attention to his surroundings as he attempted to crawl up the engineer's leg armor to reach Star.

"Don't worry Blue," Wheeljack said reassuringly and clamped a servo onto the younger mech's shoulder once he was within range. "The stress has just finally come to a boiling point and your argument spilled it over. It could have been anything really: stubbing her toe on the stairs; finding that empty milk jug in the refrigerator; Jordin Sparks being voted off _American Idol."_

"But it was me," Bluestreak said morosely as he sat beside them. He cringed when Star growled up at him and pointedly crawled to the other side of Wheeljack's lap. "And I knew how she felt and _purposely _attacked her on it because she wouldn't let the James subject drop. She's still convinced he has the sparkling despite everything we've done to assure her that he didn't. It's really insulting actually."

"She's just worried. And you know she's not one to let things go. She's as stubborn as her dad and Eric, and we both know they should just be given their own level of stubbornness."

When it was obvious his words hadn't done anything to comfort, Wheeljack just continued to pat the mech comfortingly. "Just give her time to cool off. Women need more time to let go of things…and that wasn't me being sexist. I have scientific proof to back that up."

Bluestreak chuckled at the engineer's sudden bumbling, and his mood significantly lightened when his laugh attracted Recall's attention, causing the sparkling to squeal in joy and abandon Wheeljack's leg in favor of crawling to Bluestreak. The young Autobot picked the sparkling up and completely relaxed as said sparkling cooed and cuddled into the armor right above the mech's spark. "I can barely feel her at all…"

"Let her cool off. I swear she'll get better if you just give her space." Not one to stay inactive for long, Wheeljack transitioned Star from his lap his servo and stood up. "Why don't you come help me and Star to pass the time? We've been attempting to up the speed for his remote control jet without breaking it…like the first one."

Bluestreak thought for a moment before nodding and accepting the offered servo to pull him up. Victoria couldn't stay upset with him for long. She'd come around like Wheeljack said, and when she did, he'd apologize as much as he had to in order to fully gain her forgiveness for his insensitive jibe.

Because he hated it when the people closest to him were hurt especially when it was his fault.

**)(**

Victoria sat in a silent station wagon, her head leaning against the steering wheel and staring blankly at her hands clutched in her lap. She'd been sitting on the side of the road for an hour now thinking over the argument that had exploded (because that was the only word accurate enough to describe it) between her and Bluestreak a few hours ago.

She couldn't think of another time they had ever argued. Most of the things that could have been made arguable were things they usually agreed on, and during the rare times that they _didn't_ agree, they had never reacted that way. Maybe the main issue was the lack of sleep lately or the stress. Or the fact that for the first time they were so firmly rooted in what they believed in.

The woman spun the homemade bracelet that was on her wrist. It was a replica of the bracelet Bluestreak had made for their Christmas together, though this one lacked the symbols for "friends forever" and instead displayed the symbol whose closest translation would be "siblings" and the metal holding it together was stronger than the flimsy wire he had used before.

Bluestreak had always been a sweet mech around her, defying the many events that could have easily given him the personality of a common Decepticon. Sometimes she even forgot all the things he had gone through, that he was a true Autobot soldier that had killed when it was necessary, because those were things that he never liked to talk about. The only time she could remember him being completely open about what happened before becoming an Autobot had been that phone conversation they had the day she first met her stepmom.

So…maybe he really did feel like she was just a simple human. Not all the time of course, but it was possible that the thought had crossed his mind before today. Probably when she complained about her simple, everyday problems; those were nothing compared to the years of problems he had had to face. Even though he tended to act more like a teenager than adult, he was still wiser than she was because he was just, well, older.

But she was _right_ about this—she just knew it! The only way she could explain it was how she had told Bluestreak. It was just constant nagging in the back of her mind that told her to get off her ass and go get that baby from the crazy man before it was too late. Because maybe there was a reason she just happened to get that delivery that day, the same day the pod had crashed down to Earth.

It was a really desperate reach to form some kind of explanation, but it oddly satisfied her.

The only problem was that neither Autobot found her claims credible. Their stakeouts had yielded nothing, and she knew that they had started looking into other possibilities. And she honestly couldn't blame them. Five days and no solid evidence seemed like a good alibi to forget about the man and move on.

Victoria snapped up in her seat and started the car without a second thought, pulling off the side of the road and streaking down the road as fast her old station wagon could go. The Autobots refused to act until they had probable cause, like evidence of some kind, but Victoria had never agreed to that. She didn't require anything for her to know that her suspicions were correct.

Unfortunately, the plan she had in mind required her to return to the house for a few supplies before it could be enacted.

**)(**

Wheeljack paused in his tinkering as he heard the unmistakable sound of a vehicle heading towards the house. Subspacing the prototype he was playing with for a moment, the engineer exited the barn to see Victoria sloppily parking in front of the house. He couldn't help the static filled sigh of relief that escaped him. He hadn't anticipated that the woman would stay away for as long as she had been and had sent Bluestreak off for a drive when the Praxian began to fret when she hadn't returned four hours after their argument.

However he blinked in confusion when Victoria didn't pay him any mind and rushed into the house. "Victoria could we-"

"Not right now Wheeljack!" she hollered back through the open front door. "I've got something I need to do."

"Something you need to do?" Wheeljack repeated in confusion and crouched down to look through the windows of the house. All he could see was Recall staring up at the TV in a trance-like state and Star working furiously at his new blueprints at the coffee table, which meant she was either upstairs or on the other side of the house in the kitchen. He decided to take a chance with the kitchen first and moved around the house until he found her shoving a frozen icepack into an insulated lunch bag. "I think we should talk about what happened between you and Blue."

A sound closely resembling a whine emitted from the woman before she could stop it, and she turned her back to him as she shoved the lunch box into a bigger messenger bag. "I don't wanna talk about it."

"Well then just listen. I know it's been kinda hard lately with-" He huffed as he watched her dash out of the room. "Victoria! Would you stop moving around the house when I am trying to speak? This is possibly the only time I'm going to be really serious and not try to make a joke in the middle of it."

"I'm in a hurry," she yelled back. Wheeljack moved around the house once more to see her shove a throw blanket into the bag too. "I have about half an hour to get somewhere that is over an hour away. Have you seen the screwdriver?"

"Where are you going?" the engineer finally ventured to ask. "And why do you need a screwdriver?"

"Never mind, I think I saw one in the junk drawer in the kitchen," Victoria said while strategically avoiding his question as she hurried back out of the room. Or would have hurried if Star hadn't jumped up and intercepted her, shoving his crooked drawing into her face. She took the interception in stride and analyzed the picture like he wanted her to. "Oh Star, this is wonderful! Do you want to hang it on the refrigerator or give it to Wheeljack so you and him can use it later?"

The Seekerlet looked between the masked face of the engineer and the appliance in question before clicking and pointing into the kitchen. For all of her need to hurry, it didn't stop Victoria to follow Star and hang the piece of paper up with one of the few magnets they owned. The new addition hung proudly with the others that had already found a home on the refrigerator. "There we go! One more masterpiece to join the others, and will there be many more to follow?"

Star nodded eagerly and ran back into the living room to start on another. Wheeljack couldn't help but flash his vocal fins in amusement. "See there? You're a wonderful mother! I'll have you know that he refused to give any of his drawings to me, and he sure doesn't look for _my_ approval."

Victoria watched the sparklings for a moment before exiting the house with her stuffed bag. Wheeljack followed and watched her throw said bag into the back of her car with growing concern. "Victoria, seriously, where are you going?"

"Just…somewhere. I promise to be back as soon as I can." She yelped as a huge hand moved to block her from entering the station wagon. "Wheeljack!"

"Before you go, hear me out. Bluestreak is genuinely sorry for what he said earlier. He didn't mean the words that came out of his mouth. But I want to make sure that you understand that it wasn't completely his fault. The stress and everything else that you've been feeling over the past few days is having as strong of an effect on him as it is you; I wouldn't be surprised if that was the same for Sideswipe and Sunstreaker too. Those emotions have kept bouncing back and forth between all of you and were unintentionally intensified until one of you—figuratively speaking—popped. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I don't want you to be mad at him when your both equally at fault."

Victoria dug at the dirt under her fingernail, and Wheeljack released a sigh as he moved his hand out of her way. "When are you going to be back?"

"I don't know. Later tonight maybe," she answered quietly while avoiding his optics. "I figured that our argument may have stemmed from the stress over the last few days. Let Bluestreak know that I'm not mad at him, but right now I've gotta do something."

He nodded and watched her drive off. He shook his head in puzzlement over her rushed return and turned to the house when he heard Star shriek. Recall's show must have gone off, signaling the mischievous mechling to try out coloring with his bigger friend.

Wheeljack couldn't keep the smile off of his face when he peaked back into the house and saw the smaller sparkling doing just as he had predicted.

**)(**

Who knew breaking into your first house would make your stomach feel like it had been tightly twisted together? It made Victoria feel slightly sick as she cautiously peeked around the tree she hid behind. She observed the house on the other side of the road. If what Bluestreak had said was true, then it should have been completely empty seeing as it was currently a quarter after six, and the empty driveway and lack of lights on the inside seemed to collaborate with the information.

Yet she found herself unable to even cross the street. Victoria had been overly confident when she parked her car in the trees a mile or two away, but that confidence had slowly trickled away while she had trekked just inside the tree line until she reached her destination. What the hell did she think she was doing? She had never even thought about breaking into a home let alone what went into planning it. Why hadn't she grabbed a more useful tool than a _screwdriver?_ She didn't even know what she had planned to use the screwdriver for! It just seemed smart at the time.

Victoria sighed and checked the time on her phone. Whatever she was going to do, she had better decide it quick. Time was passing by and there was no definite way to say that she would get another chance. The man might suddenly change his schedule around tomorrow when he realized he wasn't being watched.

A sudden rush of adrenaline seemed to push her out from her hiding spot and sprinting across the road. Where it came from she'd never know, but she was happy to admit that it was exactly what she needed to get her up the porch. Maybe this was what she had anticipated using the screwdriver on? To take the doorknob off or something?

Besides the fact that that was a very stupid plan, the screwdriver was never needed because the door was already unlocked. That had her suddenly on her guard considering the fact that James appeared to be a very paranoid man who constantly believed someone or something was after him. Why would he leave the house without locking up?

Victoria entered the house cautiously, pulling out the flashlight she had stored in her bag. It would prove to be a formidable weapon if need be with its heavy weight, but just in case she also made sure that the taser Wheeljack had made her was within reach. Now _that_ was a formidable weapon for the simple fact that it had "Developed by Wheeljack" proudly stamped across it.

The flashlight illuminated the hallway she remembered from her first visit except it was now lined with different sized boxes stacked on top of each other. She moved forward to the room he had taken her to and realized that the boxes were the same ones from that room. He must have realized how crowded they made the room because said room was now surprisingly spacey.

She swept the beam of light around the room before it fell on a door that had been previously hidden by boxes. She stared at it for a moment and shrugged. It was as good of a place as any to start.

With trepidation filling her, Victoria cautiously pushed the door open and stared down a dark staircase. That was a surprise as she had been suspecting to walk right into another room filled with…well she didn't know what but her mind seemed to provide some rather gruesome pictures. And she wasn't too overly thrilled to go down this staircase.

Except if you were hiding something, one of the most likely places you would put it is down in the basement. People were less likely to venture down into that room than any other part of a house, and Victoria could understand that reluctance halfway down the staircase. How were you to know what you were about to stumble upon? Or if someone wasn't watching you from the top of the staircase you had just come down?

…she suddenly turned around and glared back the way she came. Just checking.

Eventually she made it to the bottom and checked the wall closest to her for a light switch. She found it and turned her flashlight off to conserve power. The room wasn't nearly as bad as she imagined; in fact it looked vaguely…_normal._ There were two foldable tables pushed up against one wall, one containing scattered documents and a computer, the other having everyday hardware tools on it. File cabinets lined the opposite wall along with a display that she couldn't clearly see from where she stood. The back of the room was still cast in shadow and hard for her to see.

Victoria headed to the closest table and flipped through some of the papers. Most of them were hard to read because of the scribbled handwriting or too scientific for her to understand, but some things jumped out at her from Wheeljack's teaching, so she concluded that the majority of what she saw somehow involved mechanical engineering. She didn't risk turning the computer on and barely glanced at the tools before turning to the display she had difficulty seeing.

She jumped back and nearly shrieked at the red optics staring at her. It took a moment to realize that the optics were abnormally dull and a moment more to process that the optics lacked an actual head, which made her shudder. The shudder intensified when she realized what the rest of the display contained.

Someone had thoroughly dissected the helm a Cybertronian, Decepticon if the optics were any indication. A sheet of paper sat to the side of the parts, giving Victoria a guide for the objects that she could already identify thanks to Wheeljack. Audial and olfactory receptors; a vocalizer; the optics; a complicated processor with severed wires sprouting from it; even a glossa floating around in a jar of solution—it made the woman pity the mech who the parts had formerly been. She just hoped that the other part of the chassis wasn't lying around somewhere with a fully functional spark…or that that spark wasn't in another display in the house.

How had this mad man managed to come across a Decepticon and actually lived to be able to dissect it? There was no way—one man couldn't bring down a Decepticon! A group maybe, but James didn't seem like a team player to her.

A new wave of determination flooded the brunette as she turned away from the display. She had to find that sparkling and get out _now._ According to the clock on her phone, she only had thirty more minutes until James returned (if he stayed true to his schedule) and a whole house still left unsearched.

Victoria was heading back to the staircase when the sound of shuffling made her turn back around. It had come from the back of the room, and she switched her flashlight back on to be able see past the darkness that cloaked that area.

The metal of the chain linked cage glinted back at her, and she hurried over to it without a second thought. It was a big cage: tall enough for an average person to stand up inside comfortably and long enough for that same person to take four big steps in each direction. In the middle was a stand and on top of that stand was a simple baby bassinet that seemed to be mockingly set up when compared to its surroundings. Especially when she finally found the door to the cage and saw that it was locked with three separate locks.

"You have got to be kidding me," Victoria muttered as she flashed her light across the locks: two types of padlock and a combination lock commonly found on high school lockers. "What did he expect? The sparkling wouldn't even be able to get out of the bassinet without getting hurt, let alone have the ability to get reach up high enough to even touch one of the lock."

She twirled the combination lock and tugged on it experimentally. Well, this might take a while to figure out…

Ten minutes later, two locks lay on the ground, and Victoria slightly panted while holding her flashlight up high to bring it down on the final lock. "You know…I could have used…that stupid screwdriver…for this," the woman grunted between hits. "I could have just unscrewed the damn door."

The final lock broke, and she wrestled it from its place. The door squealed open, prompting more shuffling to come from the bassinet, and Victoria hurried over to it without a second thought. The bassinet was bare save for one, thin blanket that was draped across it like an afterthought. It moved around as she beamed the flashlight down on it, and the woman carefully took ahold of a corner fluttering in the air and pulled it off.

If Recall was to be considered the size of a young toddler, then this little sparkling was nearly the size of a newborn. He was curled up in the middle of the bassinet, tiny hands and knobby knees curled protectively to his chest to hide a completely visible spark that glowed a soft blue. The smooth curve of his tiny helm was only interrupted by two little bumps that looked like they would one day grow to be like the horn-like projections she remembered Jazz, Red Alert, and Sideswipe having.

He must have realized his covering had been moved because the tiny head she had been admiring moved slightly and two optics came online, winking slightly as they attempted to fully boot up. Victoria couldn't keep the coo from escaping her when deep amber optics managed to focus on her. "Hey sweetie. I'm here to take you someplace safe. We'll just-"

Her words were cut off, and she felt her heart drop into her stomach at the gate behind her slamming shut. She spun around and rushed at the chain link wall just as James finished wrapping a thick chain around the bar of the door and the wall of the cage and snapped a padlock on it. She violently shook the cage when he stepped back to look at his work proudly. "Let me out of here!"

"I knew you'd try to take my specimen," he said in a smug tone, leaning forward to smirk at the anger curling her lip. "So I decided I'd be nice and give another freelancer the chance to observe it. Of course, the price to pay is that you can't ever leave now because you just know too much. What a shame; you probably should have thought your plan out a _little_ bit more."

Victoria desperately continued to shake the cage as James twirled around on the heel of his foot and jauntily jumped up the stairs, but not before deliberately flipping the switch for the lights, sending the woman and sparkling plummeting into total darkness.

* * *

**AN: **I suppose now is a horrible time to mention that I'm experimenting with cliffhangers :P I'll try to get the next chapter at least started on while I'm away so you guys don't have to wait too long.

Until my next update :D


	10. Perspectives

**AN: **Exams—I freakin' _hate_ exams. Especially when one gets scheduled before I can get all my books. Anyway I totally meant to get this chapter out earlier because of the cliffhanger from the last one, but life decided to give me a major stress attack before going on it's merry way :( _  
_

_"Thinking"  
:Com Talk:  
_**~Bond Speech~**

* * *

A New Version of Reality

Chapter Eight

Perspectives

**Don't judge a man by his opinions, but what his opinions have made of him. ― Georg Christoph Lichtenberg**

* * *

"What if she's been in an accident?"

"Blue-"

"Or finally got tired of us-"

"_Bluestreak."_

"-and left to go be with Bumblebee because right now he's probably a lot more preferred than us at the moment." Bluestreak gasped in his overexaggerated hysteria, causing Wheeljack to sigh and shake his head in exasperation. "What if she decides to become Bumblebee's human? She can't do that; she's still my bonded human sister! And what will Twins say if I let her run off with 'Bee? Oh, they're gonna kill me..."

"_Bluestreak! _Calm down and listen-"

"Wheeljack watch what you're doing!"

Wheeljack emitted an unseemly yelp as he unknowingly tipped the container of chemicals he was handling and they spilled out onto the plating covering his left thigh. Without pause, he reached across the table to snatch up a bottle of cloudy solution and squirted it liberally on the area. He groaned at the sight of where the acid had completely eaten away his pristine paint. Great, now he would have an ugly, paintless patch on the side of his truck bed when he transformed because Star had wasted all the white paint.

Bluestreak smiled sheepishly at the glare the engineer turned on him. "You should pay more attention when handling acids?"

"Bluestreak you need to calm down," Wheeljack said with an abnormally strained tone as he placed the container back on the table. "Victoria said she had to do something and then she would be back. She's a grown woman both mentally and physically, and if she wants to stay out until the sun comes up then she can. What she would do during that time is a good question since she isn't of legal age to get into most of the joints that open after the sun falls, but again it's her choice. Maybe she has a 'guy friend' that we don't know about."

Wheeljack noticed Bluestreak's highly displeased look and nodded approvingly. "That's right. Guy friends must be thoroughly approved by _us_ before they can even think of advancing to the level. And then they have to get through her dad and Eric. I actually feel bad for any guy she tries to date."

The younger mech nodded in agreement before looking lost. "But I thought you said she forgave me. If that's true then why's she still blocking me?"

"Hm, maybe she _is_ doing some naughty things."

"'Jack."

"But why would she need a screwdriver for _that? _Unless…what if she didn't actually mean a screwdriver but some kind of kinky-"

"_Wheeljack!_ That's gross!"

"Sorry, the gutter seems to have a magnet hiding in it and my mind has the opposite pole. It's completely out of my hands that they happen to be attracted to each other."

Bluestreak groaned as the engineer's optics dimmed slightly. "No more perverted stuff Wheeljack. Do you have a problem getting laid or something? Is that why you have these moments?"

"Well, _so-rry!_ It's not my fault Ratchet isn't very forthcoming."

"Ew!" The Praxian shrieked and ran out of the barn, repeating the word over and over again while bringing his servos up to protect his delicate audial receptors. "I don't wanna hear about your interface life! It's…it's like having to listen to Prowl talk about his if he had one!"

Wheeljack's fins flashed a bright blue with immense amusement. "You _prude._ You're the one that asked._" _He paused and shuddered for no reason, glancing over his shoulder and cringing instinctively as if something had been thrown at him. "Awe, pit. I didn't even think about what Ratchet would do if he hears I used him to imply something perverted. He was _not_ happy last time. Bluestreak, I take everything I just said back and will give you a year's supply of gummy Energon if you never mention this incident to Ratchet!"

The engineer paused after running after Bluestreak and finding the mech standing right outside the barn, his formally amused air suddenly cold and depressed. Wheeljack found the reason for extreme change standing at the back door with a sniffling sparkling awkwardly held up on his hip.

Star grunted and staggered halfway across the yard until he finally ran out of energy and carefully put Recall down on his own pedes. Recall whined and tried to climb back into the Seekerlet's arms, but Star shook his head and beeped down at the smaller mechling with slight annoyance, pointing towards where the two older mechs stood. Blue optics shuttered and uncontrollable hiccups shook the tiny frame as he plopped down onto his behind and began to cry.

He wasn't left alone for long, and he curled up in Wheeljack's servo after the mech had scooped him up. The fins of the engineer's face lit up the little, whimpering form in his servo as he repeated reassuring nothings. Bluestreak stood beside him with a forlorn expression on his face. "He wants Vicky."

"Duh," Wheeljack managed to get between the comfort noises he made. "Victoria's made herself his number one source of comfort. When she didn't come at the first sound of crying, he must have felt terrible." He sighed when he realized his attempts were useless as the crying increased in volume and vaguely waved Bluestreak towards the mechling still standing before them. "Get Star back to bed while I deal with this. The last thing we need is _two_ crying sparkings."

Bluestreak made a stressed sound when the older mech turned back to the barn without another word and turned to Star. "Hey Star. You wanna…go for a little ride? It'll put you to sleep."

The Seekerlet balefully glared up at the mech and turned away with a huff. Bluestreak's door-wings clung to his lower back as he watched Star trot back into the house, returning with a throw blanket from the couch and a familiar brown bunny, and ran right past the mech to the barn where Recall's cries were steadily growing in intensity.

Bluestreak hung back and stared morosely at the empty yard. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make everyone upset…"

**)(**

Victoria would admit that her first reaction after being sent into total darkness was to panic. She fell to the cement floor after tripping over her own feet and started groping around in an attempt to find the flashlight that had fallen from her hand in her rush to get to the door. As she searched for it, panic filled her and she was prepared to drop the block she still had up from earlier—to signal to Blue to come and save her from the void that seemed ready to swallow her…

A whimper to her left caught her attention, and Victoria's distressed mind was able to remember that she wasn't alone. She had a very young sparkling to take care of—that was the entire reason she was even here!

The woman sat back and pulled her knees to her chest, hugging them close and balancing her forehead on top as she worked to calm her breathing while keeping Bluestreak none-the-wiser. The last thing she needed (or wanted for that matter) was for the sharpshooter to blindly come for her when he felt her distress because even if James hadn't singlehandedly taken down that dissected mech, he _knew_ how to do it. And she didn't want to see him, Wheeljack, or their sparklings on display like that. Plus she couldn't care for the other occupant trapped with her if she allowed her panic to take over and block the rest of the world out.

So Victoria did the best thing she could think of at the time: she began to shut off her emotions. It was like stepping into an old pair of shoes, albeit a pair of slightly smaller shoes that pinched your toes horribly. She hadn't done something so extreme during her second lease at life, though she had come close to doing so when her mother died again and the only thing that had kept her from doing so was Bluestreak. But she remembered her years as a teenager and young adult from her past life, before she had met any of the Transformers. Concentrating now on shoving all of her extreme emotions—the ones that would lead her to panic while trapped here—to the back of her mind, she now wondered what had possessed her to do that the first time. The fear of being hurt again most likely. God, she was such a coward at times.

By the time Victoria had calmed down enough to think straight, the whimpers had evolved to other soft sounds of distress punctuated by the occasional click and the sound of tiny fans kicking on. She felt her way through the darkness until she bumped up against the bassinet. The whimpers stopped immediately, though the fans continued to drone uncontrollable. Victoria slowly stood up until she stood above the stand; dark yellow optics illuminated a tiny face as he stared up at her with distrust and a fear that almost broke her heart.

"Come here sweetie," she started softly and reached out blindly to pick up him. "We're gonna be okay; we'll get out of here. Until then, let me take care of you. Are you hungry? I bet you are."

The sparkling grunted softly in response to the human's soft voice and eventually curled up to her chest as she continued to feel around the floor with her feet for the flashlight, cursing once when she hit her shin on the corner of the stand. It took a while and some fancy footwork until the light was found, and after that Victoria pointedly placed them in the farthest corner from the door where they were protected on two sides by solid wall.

Maneuvering the sparkling that was slowly falling back to sleep with care, Victoria reached into the messenger bag that had almost been forgotten. The first order of business was to get some Energon in the baby's tank. He had gone over a week longer than Recall and Star, and it honestly amazed her that he was still able to function, no matter how weak that range of function was.

James must have concluded by the mechanics of the sparkling's body that it required a type of fuel and kept it alive by force feeding it crude oil from an average gas pump. She couldn't help but cringe at the thought. Bluestreak had told her once that while he and Wheeljack could use the gasoline without refining it, it had an awful taste and could even cause damage to their tanks if it sat for too long. It was a blessing that Wheeljack had already been working on a way to convert the resources on Earth into Energon, so the period of using the raw material was brief.

Victoria pulled out the lunch bag she had nabbed from the house and pulled a cool bottle of Energon from it. Uncapping it without caring for where the protective top landed, she moved the sparkling around a little more until she was able to gently nudge his lips with the rubber nipple.

At first, he refused to accept the new, strange thing demanding entrance, turning his head from side to side with a whine whenever it touched him. With a few gentle encouragements and manually squeezing out a drop of Energon to slightly saturate his mouth, Victoria was able to get him to accept it and waited for him to continue from there. His amber optics flickered back on for a moment at his first tentative sucks before offlining once more, sucking with a little more gusto now and emitting what she considered to be a happy grunt.

The woman smiled happily and gently hummed and rocked as the sparkling consumed his real first meal since landing on Earth. Unfortunately the joy of getting him to eat didn't last. He was only able to drink about a fourth of the bottle before turning his head away and spitting up a tiny glob of congealed Energon mixed with what looked like remnants of gasoline. Victoria took the spit up in stride and used the worn blanket she had found with the sparkling to clean it up.

"You're okay," she cooed when she saw clear liquid surrounding the yellow optics glint in the little light the flashlight provided. "We'll just have to take it slow and let your little tank adjust to the different fuel. You're probably use to the stuff he feeds you now."

The sparkling curled up close to her with a whimper, little vents emitting a strained sound that made her worry. Victoria pushed the bottle back into the bag and pulled out the thick throw blanket she had had the forethought to grab. At least it had a purpose, unlike that _useless screwdriver._

"_Unless I can get close enough to that bastard to drive it into his eye socket," _Victoria thought vindictively, her gentle movements to wrap the cold child up with the blanket a gross contradictory to her thoughts. _"Wheeljack and Bluestreak would probably be disappointed with my actions, but _damn,_ would it make me feel better."_

Thoughts of revenge were shoved to the back of her mind like she had done with her earlier panic, and she laid on her side, back to the door of the cage as a final small wall of protection for the sparkling already back in recharge in his new, comfy blanket cocoon. Victoria allowed her fingertips to stroke the back of his helm and stared blankly at the wall as plans for an escape flitted through her head.

None of them proved useful, and most of them ended with James being comically squished by a huge pede.

**)(**

Victoria didn't even realize that she had fallen into a light sleep until a loud curse woke her. Eyes snapping open and heart pounding at the sudden rush of alarm filled adrenaline, the woman allowed her body to instinctively tense up and stared wide eyed at the grey wall though the chain linked fence. Wait a minute, how could she see…

The brunette slowly glanced over her shoulder with caution and noted the entire basement was now flooded with light, even the space that the cage occupied. Loud clicking seemed to bounce off the walls, and she saw James was leaning over one of the tables, using his elbows for leverage as his fingers flew across the keyboard. He froze before releasing a huge sneeze that made the sparkling in her arms jump and release a sudden cry.

Victoria sat up when James turned at the sound, shielding the sparkling when the man smiled widely. "Good morning! I wasn't sure when you would wake up, but you seemed to be sleeping so well that I didn't want to bother you when I had to change the light bulbs."

It felt like a ball of lead suddenly descended into her stomach as she slowly looked up to see a light fixture that required those long light bulbs centered above the cage. She had been certain that the reason behind the area being dark was because there were no lights in the area. Now she finds out that he had- "What do you mean you changed the light bulbs?"

He nonchalantly pointed up at the fixture she was staring at. "Yeah, I noticed how it wasn't working last night, so I decided to take a look at it, and—surprise, surprise!—it needed to be changed. I'd almost forgotten how hard it was to change those things."

"How-"

"I moved a ladder in there, temporarily popped the top of the cage off, and changed it. Simple as that."

Victoria stared as he turned around in a circle, searching for something, and instinctively hugged the sparkling closer. He had been _inside_ the cage? Changing a freaking light bulb? After taking apart a section of the cage? How the _hell_ did she not notice that?

"I don't have much in the kitchen, but I found some stuff to put together a sandwich. Guess I'll be going into town soon."

James placed a plate right outside the door, and Victoria stared blankly at it. What he expect—for the plate to fit through the tiny spaces in the cage? Apparently so, because he left it there and looked back at her expectantly. She shifted slightly under his stare, accidentally allowing him to catch sight of the sparkling.

"Ah, so _that's_ where it went. I thought it was a little odd when I found the bed tipped over on the floor. It must have been hard to find it in the dark." He paused and looked very surprised at something. "How did you make its eyes look so bright? I've had it for a week now, and its eyes have been duller and duller despite the fuel I've been giving it."

Victoria glared and turned away to keep the sparkling out of his eyesight as the bright yellow-orange optics looked up at her somewhat expectedly. _"He_ is not an it. _He_ is a baby who hasn't been properly taken care of because an ignorant man happened to find him before we could."

James nodded wisely and said, as if they were just having a casual conversation over lunch, "I'm sorry. I never had to _actually_ take care of one like I've had to do for this one. N.B.E 01 didn't really need much maintenance in his froze state and most of the others…well, they didn't actually _last_ long enough to be taken care of."

Her eyes darted over to the display of the unknown mech's head. Yeah, she could see that they didn't last long. "You seem like you've come across a few."

An abrupt laugh was choked out of the man, and he rubbed at his chin with a tinge respect. "Maybe I have, but don't think that means I'll tell you all about them. I'm sure you feel the same way about your finds."

She scowled at him when he turned his back and returned to the computer. He went from an extremely paranoid person, to an overly nice man, to one that simply exuded confidence, and now he's acting almost _normal_. It could have been because of the circumstances, but Victoria couldn't help but think that he might need to see a doctor about his extreme personality changes. Even if she wasn't as informed as Smokescreen seemed to be, it was easy to tell that not everything was correctly connected in the graying brunet's head.

Victoria glanced at the food he had left behind, a new question forming. "So, what did you spike the sandwich with? Arsenic? Some kind of date rape drug?"

James looked truly offended as he turned back to her. "I wouldn't _poison_ your food. That's just…it's a despicable way to kill a person. It's bad enough that we have people in our world that run around and kill others with things like guns and knives. And the people who have to suffer for it have no means to protect themselves. Take for instance yourself. I already have you contained. Why would I expend the energy to do you harm when you're not a threat?"

"Is that why you have the dissected head on display? He was a threat?"

He gave her a relaxed smile that barely reached his eyes hidden behind his wire glasses. "I haven't encountered one of those _things_ that wasn't. They have no sense of mercy."

James turned back to his computer again, making it obvious that he didn't wish to continue the conversation. Victoria stared at his back before doing as he did, turning her back and focusing on the sparkling in her arms. He was looking around, a little more aware of his surroundings than last night but still sluggish with his responses. She delicately traced his stubby nose ridge with a fingertip, and it took him a minute to reach out and grab the finger, missing a few times before finally dragging it back to his mouth to gum on the tip.

She should probably attempt to feed him again and see how much he would be able to keep down. Maybe now that she could see him clearly, she'd be able to get a better understanding of what condition he was in. It was hard to tell when a Cybertronian was suffering from "dehydration" just by examining their outward appearance. Telltale signs could be dimmed optics and fluid lines that were thinner than they should be, but sometimes those were caused by other factors. "Starvation" was somewhat easier to pick up on as the Cybertronian in question will often look as if they had "lost weight" from their systems cannibalizing the protoform in an attempt to regain the nutrients needed to keep those systems going, but picking that up without performing a proper medical scan required knowing the mech or femme's original mass and being able to see past their armor.

The only thing that appeared wrong with the sparkling at first glance was that he was _way_ smaller than Star or Recall (that required an explanation form Wheeljack), the lines that she could examine without causing discomfort were a little thin (but that could have been because of his before mentioned size), his fans sometimes emitted an odd sound that she'd never heard from a Cybertronian, and his optics sometimes flickered between brightness settings or completely off for no apparent reason. Other than those few oddities she was highly impressed by the condition he was in.

"How were you able to take care of him so well?"

James glanced over his shoulder before returning to scribbling on a piece of paper. "After the first few days it came to my attention that if I didn't do something it wouldn't last long enough to even be of use. I started giving it gasoline because former research found that some of the mechanics of these things are similar to cars. Or I should probably say the _cars_ are similar to the things.

"There was really nothing else wrong with it. I noticed it couldn't really move on its own, and it stayed in one position on the floor most of the time. The metal composing its body is more malleable and appears to bend when settled in one position for too long. So I found an old bassinet to put it in. That was why you saw all those boxes moved around when you came in. You did see the boxes right?"

He waited for her hesitant nod before continuing. "Yes, so after discovering that and assuring myself that it had no weapons-"

"How did you do that?"

James blinked at the interruption. "Well, I did it the only way I could. I attempted to take the armor off-"

"That isn't _armor,"_ Victoria said with horror. She abruptly grabbed the sparkling's arm and turned it around every which way to find any anomalies on his arm where common weapons could be found on any Cybertronian. The sparkling blinked and made it difficult for her by deciding he suddenly wanted to be active, waving his arm around and reaching up to try and grab her short strands of hair that fluttered above him. "He's not big enough to have armor yet. This is like, like skin!"

"Uh yeah! I kinda figured that out when he started screaming bloody murder. Took half the night to calm him down and the other half for the headache to go away. Proved to be fairly informational though. Even after the years of observing N.B.E. 01, I never knew that the layer beneath the armor was so sensitive." The man noticed that the horrified expression hadn't left her face. "You look at me like I'm monster."

"What did you do to him?"

"I simply tried to pry apart what I thought was armor, and he started screaming in pain. After that I never tried again."

Victoria looked down at the sparkling playing with her fingers and then over at the bassinet that was perfectly placed in the middle. "Why a bassinet? It seems kind of ironic with the surroundings."

James gave a half shrug. "He's too small for anything else, and I happened to know it was lying around not being used…"

Victoria didn't miss his slip of words. He'd gone the whole conversation making a point to refer to any Cybertronian as "it," "thing," or the specifically named "N.B.E 01." Words that put distance between him and them—made them appear more like objects than actual sentient beings. But you don't put an object in a bassinet or even cared when it started screaming.

So Victoria decided to take another approach than the one she had planned. Instead of hiding the sparkling from him, she made a point to get up, walk across the cage, and place the child into the bassinet. A small cry of displeasure came from him until she pulled out another object from her bag. It was a small white bear that neither Recall nor Star had ever shown interest in. She figured it would have come in handy to keep the sparkling calm if he got upset over his sudden change of environment.

James watched as the sparkling stared at the object she held out to him and gingerly accepted it after Victoria cooed and wiggled the teddy bear above him. He clicked and poked curiously at the black beads of the bear's eyes before pulling at the simple bow tied around its neck with jerky motions. The woman allowed the sparkling to play alone as she turned around to casually saunter to the front of the cage and lean against it. "So…what makes this one special enough to be referred to as 'he?'"

The man's eyes snapped to her and he clamped shut, making his stance as neutral as possible. "If you would excuse me, I had a pot of tea on the stove and it's most likely done now."

Victoria watched him leave, noticing that he left the door open and lights on. Apparently the sparkling was a touchy subject for her jailer, challenging his previous beliefs.

And that could be their key out of here.

**)(**

Star glared up at the dark grey mech with the fake wings and bold splash of red on his stupid forehead. He had never liked this mech as much as Wheeljack. He'd been tricked at their first meeting and had actually been excited to see someone else with wings. _His_ wings may not have been fully grown, but he knew instinctively that one day he'd be able to fly through the air, and that sent an excited thrill through him. He had wanted to be ready when that time came and had thought that the older mech could teach him.

But he had been tricked. Those weren't _real_ wings; they were horrible fakes that folded down to form _doors_ when the mech transformed. At least Wheeljack didn't try to trick him with his wing…thingies. What were those? They didn't even vaguely move like wings—they barely moved at all! Maybe they were some kind of sensors…but why would Wheeljack have sensors in such a vulnerable position, especially when Vivi joked half the time about him blowing up?

Whatever, the engineer wasn't supposed to be the focus of his thoughts right now anyway. The fake winged mech was his current annoyance.

Star never liked Bluestreak, even before he had run off Vivi. There was the matter of the fake wings of course, but he was also as much of an attention hog as Recall was. The mech was always taking the woman's attention away when Star wanted it. He didn't really mind when Recall did it because Recall was a stupid baby who still needed to be taken care of. But Bluestreak was just stupid; he didn't have an excuse in Star's optics.

"Please Star," Bluestreak begged now and carefully held out Star's favorite sippy cup, the one with the cool (but _obviously_ fake) jets on it. "Just take the sippy cup. Victoria will be upset if she finds out you haven't eaten the whole time she was gone."

Star arrogantly turned his helm away and caught sight of Recall on the other side of the yard. The sparkling was sprawled out on a blanket underneath the shade of a tree, taking his normal afternoon recharge after his lunch. Stupid sparkling acted like nothing had happened. Like their human caretaker was just stepping out for a while and would show up later.

Where was Wheeljack? He wanted to go inside but Bluestreak wouldn't let him. So how was he going to make another masterpiece for his squishy caretaker? He couldn't draw with a stick!

Star growled and darted away when Bluestreak reached down to pick him up. "Star hold still! If I have to feed you like the sparkling you are, then I will. Don't you—don't you dare go into that house! I can't get to you if you get hurt in there."

The Seekerlet darted this way and that, dashing up the back porch. He stopped with his hand on the doorknob and turned to stick his glossa out at the not so happy mech, who was blocked by the roof of the porch. He was going to do what _he_ wanted to do and Bluestreak didn't have any authority over him because he didn't _like_ the mech.

And Bluestreak was never going to get one his masterpieces.

Star ignored the angry voice of the mech-who-was-never-allowed-a-masterpiece and casually strolled through the house to the living room, stopping to pick up the clear container that usually stored his drawing materials. He ignored the face that glared at him through the window as he slowly collected his markers, pencils, crayons, and paper, and then specifically arranged them within the container.

The Seekerlet looked up once—_once—_and clicked at the angry Bluestreak. _"You mad afthead?"_ would have been a close translation to what he said, and Bluestreak picked up on the tone and deepened his scowl. "I am not playing with you Star. Get back out here _now."_

Star stuck his glossa back out and blew a raspberry at the mech. _"You're not my sire!"_ he clicked, not questioning where the term had come from since it had never been used around him. _"Vivi's not here either."_

"Just –just wait until Wheeljack and Victoria get back! I'm going to tell them how bad you were compared to Recall."

So? More attention for him…afthead. Star giggled—the first happy noise he had emitted since coming online. There was just something about that word that made him giggle. Afthead…ah, it sent him into a giggling fit.

"Stop trying to be cute," Bluestreak huffed as he watched Star bend over his container with uncontrollable giggling. "I'm seriously mad at you. Get your crayons and get back out here."

Star stuck his glossa out again but the fun at making the mech angry was dimmed by the fact that Bluestreak suddenly stood up and vanished from sight. The mechling beeped with curiosity and moved to the front window. He ran to the front door when he saw a cloud of dust coming towards the house.

Vivi! Vivi was back, and that meant he could tell her how bad Bluestreak was—not letting him color, or come in the house when he wanted to, and keeping his sippy cup hostage. Bluestreak was a bad, _bad_ mech, and he needed a _timeout._ A timeout for the bad, fake winged, not allowed to have a masterpiece afthe-

Star's shoulders slumped when a familiar white truck, now coated with a thin layer of dust, came to a halt in front of him. Wheeljack transformed and crouched down to pat the mechling on the helm. "Not exactly the person you wanted to see, huh? Looks like our dear Vicky has made quite the impression on you, which is weird. Seekers are notorious for sticking with others of their build, but I guess that's kind of impossible for you at the moment."

Star huffed and turned away from the engineer, letting Bluestreak take over the conversation. "Did you find anything? Has she been to town? Did anyone see her?" The sharpshooter's door-wings fell when Wheeljack shook his head. "I'm starting to get worried. She isn't picking up her phone, and _of course_, the one and only thing she seems capable of mastering with the bond is blocking everyone else out. When she isn't under a lot of stress that is."

"Don't be like that," Wheeljack said, picking Star up when the Seekerlet allowed him to. "Something tells me that you're not as good with the bond as you make yourself out to be. Blocking is just the easiest thing to learn. Now being able to differentiate between whose emotions are whose, that's more difficult, which was why you were so influenced by Victoria. Where's Recall?"

"Under the tree taking his afternoon recharge. Can't we track her down through her phone or something? You had to have put something in the station wagon when you guys were fixing it."

"As a matter of fact, I did not." Wheeljack walked over to the tree and placed Star down beside Recall. He held his servo out for the sippy cup that Bluestreak was still carrying around, and the Praxian scowled when Star accepted the cup from the older mech without a fuss. "You see, Victoria isn't an Autobot soldier. We put in those trackers in case of the event of an Autobot being left behind on the battlefield…or as an identifier when there's no other way to do so. Victoria's a full grown woman who has used that car a total of ten times because she prefers to stick with us. I didn't see a reason at the time to chip that pile of junk metal."

Bluestreak vented a sigh and watched as Wheeljack pulled some materials from his subspace and placed them in front of Star. The Seekerlet took interest in them immediately, absently sucking down his Energon while using his free hand to shift through the stuff. "I don't get it. Why does he like you more than me? I've been nice to him since Victoria brought him home, but he's always sticking his nose up at me like I'm not worthy to be around him. I haven't even raised my voice to him before ten minutes ago, and that was because he refused to listen to me!"

"One problem you're facing is that sparklings don't listen to _anyone_. There are certain people that they behave around, but they do their own thing and all you can do is try to steer them in a direction that will cause least harm. That's why it's obvious that you're not ready to be a parent. He also might dislike you because you have fake wings."

Bluestreak frowned and looked over his shoulders at his wiggling door-wings. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"Eh, that's right. You lived your whole life before the war in Praxus, surrounded by others who were mostly your same build. If you had ventured into Vos, they would have eaten you alive. Seekers and some other fliers just seemed to find it offensive to sport kibble like door-wings. No one really knows why, and if you were to ask a Seeker, they'd just shrug and say it was. I know because I've tried. I guess it's finally been proven that it's a sparked prejudice."

"How are you sparked to hate someone?"

"I don't know; I'm just theorizing. It's what we scientists do. Then we leave it for some other scientist to support or disprove. I call it 'The Cycle of Science'."

Bluestreak shook his helm at how far off topic they had gone. "Whatever. Are you sure no one in town's seen her?"

"They all know what the station wagon looks like, sounds like, _smells_ like; all of them said it never even came through town yesterday. Maybe she wandered off to one of the bigger cities a few hours away. It would explain why she hasn't gotten back yet, and if she wanted to avoid being found then the city's a good place to get lost in."

"But you said-"

"I know what I _said,"_ Wheeljack interrupted with impatience. "But she said she needed to do something, so maybe that something is taking a little longer than she thought. I'm still trying to figure out why she needed a screwdriver and a blanket. She could be camping for all we know! Going out to be alone so that she can sort through her emotions and avoid another argument with you."

Bluestreak frowned and watched Wheeljack grumble all the way to the barn. "What do we do if she doesn't show up by tomorrow?"

"_I don't know! _I'm inclined to give her a piece of my mind for wandering off like that and ignoring our calls!_"_

Wheeljack wandered into the barn, shutting himself in to avoid any more conversation. Bluestreak made a move to follow but stopped when something bounced off his lower leg armor. He turned and glared down at the Seekerlet who was sitting on the blanket far too innocently and trying to screw two pieces of plastic together…except he was minus one jet covered sippy cup. "Why did you throw your sippy cup at me? You better put that glossa back in your mouth before I take it!"

Star could have cackled with pleasure as he threw what he had in his hands at the mech and took off across the yard as his victim yelled at him. Unfortunately, all he managed to get out were amused giggles, a far too innocent sound for a disruptive little Seekerlet like himself.

**)(**

It took James most of the day to return to the basement. Not that she had been anticipating his return. In fact, she was fine with sitting in the basement with only the sparkling as company. It gave her space to take care of him without the strange male staring them down.

For one, Victoria didn't want James to question what was in the bottle she fed the sparkling with throughout the day. Giving him ideas of replicating the substance was the last thing she wanted to do. She also didn't want him to watch as she gently prodded the sparkling's body, checking to see if there was anything in his joints that would make him lock up or any other abnormalities that she remembered being taught about by Wheeljack.

The health of the sparkling was fairly well, as she had noted earlier. There were only a few scratches, one of his elbow joints didn't bend as smoothly as the other, and his vents were still making a funny, almost wheezing-like sound every once in a while. His optics had brightened and flickered less often, and he became more interactive as she talked to him or encouraged him to move around. He still spat up some of the Energon she fed him, but she found that feeding him a small amount spread throughout the day reduced the chance of that happening. Now she had only half a bottle Energon left.

When James returned it was to find both the woman and sparkling lying on the blanket that Victoria had laid on the floor earlier. Victoria lay on her stomach, using her elbows to hold up the upper part of her body and making the teddy bear "dance" above the sparkling, who would make little grunting sounds and occasionally reach up to grab the toy.

They were so enthralled with their play that it took them a moment to realize the extra presence in the room, and Victoria screamed in surprise when she turned around and saw him standing at the bottom of the staircase, staring at them with an unreadable expression.

"Jesus Christ!" she gasped after her little outburst. "Do you make it a habit to scare the hell out of people?"

His blank expression broke and a genuine laugh came from him. "I like to keep people on their toes. You didn't eat your lunch?"

Victoria glanced at the sandwich still sitting in the same place he had put it earlier. "I'm allergic to cheese."

James looked disappointed by that fact and moved to pick up the plate. "I'll make sure to keep the cheese off next time. But I guess that means you won't want what I made for supper. Mac n' cheese is my usual Friday night meal. I do however have this." He put the plate on the edge of the table and grabbed a bottle that had been sitting beside a bowl. "It's never been opened before so you don't have to be paranoid about me poisoning it."

Victoria stared at the plastic bottle of water he managed to squeeze through the cage. "You know if I drink that I'll have to use the bathroom."

"Do you need to do that now? I should have thought about that before."

She tilted her head suspiciously. "In exchange for what?"

"Hmm?"

"You'll let me use the bathroom if I do what? Give you information?"

"…I'll let you use the bathroom for nothing. It'd be cruel not to allow you that privilege if you really needed it."

Now she looked at him with confusion. "Why are you being so nice to me when I'm supposed to by your prisoner?"

James shuffled and took the water back when he realized she wasn't interested. "Why wouldn't I be? After all, now that I have you contained it's not like you can do anything. Did you expect me to torture you or something?" The little smile that went along with his forced joke fell when he noticed her blank look. "You really did, huh? I guess I should expect that with our first encounter, but I don't go out of my way to hurt people unless they mean to cause me harm. I may _think_ about doing—I'll admit to doing that a lot—but something you'll learn during your stay is that I can't bring myself to hurt another human being."

A look of disgust was directed towards the display, and Victoria jumped on it with curiosity. "You really don't like them."

"Why would I?" the man immediately answered, clenching his hands around the bottle as if to strangle it. "Every one that I've encountered has tried to kill me and has actually killed the _innocent people _around them. You would think with N.B.E 01 being inactive that it wouldn't be any danger. I found more of my colleagues dead because of that thing than the ones running around out there, having the nerve to disguise themselves as law enforcement."

"Well, how did they die?"

"Some of them would suddenly fall from the scaffolds we had to use; others would get electrocuted while examining an area on it that they examined _every day_ with no problem_._ The worst incidents happened when someone would decide to do a little overtime. You'd think they would have learned after the first time, but most of them had the mentality of 'Oh, that won't happen to me!' It didn't help that agents like _Simmons_ looked down his nose at the people who actually did the work. He just ran around acting like he was bigger than all of us. The unofficial poster boy for S7. So what if a scientist vanished overnight? No skin off his back."

There were so many directions she could subtly push the conversation into. She could get him to talk about this Simmons guy, N.B.E 01, S7, or even past experiences that he hadn't brought up yet. But she was honestly curious about the deaths seemingly centered around this N.B.E 01 thing. "What happened to the people who worked overtime?"

James blinked as he realized he had gotten off topic. "Never saw them again; no one ever did. But I doubt it was mere coincidence to come in the next day and find an area around N.B.E 01 sectioned off and then we're told that that particular person just doesn't work there anymore...and I hacked the restricted files once and saw some gruesome pictures of bodies burnt beyond recognition, missing limbs, or perforated with holes like something had reached through their chests and pulled out their organs. I guess I wasn't as surprised to find those as I should have been though. You don't _leave_ Sector 7. You're either KIA or you go rogue, but only the good ones stay rogue for longer than a month before they're tracked down and made to 'disappear'."

"So you're a 'good one,' huh? Guess your paranoia has a good reason behind it after all. I have a friend who's probably worse than you are, but his paranoia has saved a number of lives."

James nodded, puffing up a bit with pride at the insinuation just as Victoria had imagined he would. She wondered if that pride would still be there later when she "casually" mentioned that friend was one of the very things he despised. That was for later though. "I understand when you say the ones with red eyes are dangerous. But I've also-"

She was cut off as the sound of a ringing telephone came from upstairs. James glared in the direction of the open door, and Victoria gestured towards it when he returned his attention to her. "Are you going to answer that?"

"I'm entertaining a guest at the moment. Besides, I already know who it is and have absolutely no desire to answer it. You know that one old high school buddy you never really wanna get involved with afterwards because he's gone on to do some shady stuff? Yeah, I'm not getting entangled in that again. So what were you saying?"

Victoria waited until the phone quieted before continuing. "Where was I? Oh yeah. I've also come across ones with blue eyes. Have you?"

The man shook his head in confusion. "They all have red eyes…"

"Not the ones _I _saw. In fact, they actually saved me from the ones with red eyes. I've even seen ones with yellow eyes like the baby's, and they don't seem to even like to fight. So, maybe only the red eyed ones like to kill people without regard."

James rubbed his cheek as he mulled over this new information. "I've never seen ones with blue eyes, so how am I supposed to trust what you say?"

Victoria gestured at the sparkling still playing, trying to keep the triumph off her face. Alright, now she had gained enough of his attention to listen to her. "He doesn't have red eyes, and he's been completely harmless."

"But he's just a baby…" James trailed off, keeping his gaze on the sparkling. "He can't really do anything right now."

"Exactly. Listen, I've talked to the ones with blue eyes. They're actually very close friends of mine, and the Decepticons—the red eyed ones—are the bad guys here. All of them have been at war for a really long time, and-"

"Wait a minute, you're _friends_ with them?" James asked incredulously, taking a step back. Victoria mentally cursed as the suspicious glint that had left his eyes returned full force. "You're friends with these, these metal, _inhuman_ abominations that have come to our planet to kill us?"

"No! Just let me explain-"

"Explain what? That you're their little brainwashed lapdog?" He pointed with barely contained anger at the sparkling now chewing on one of the teddy bear's ear. "You're not a freelancer like I am. Let me guess, you're 'friends' told you that thing was landing didn't they? And you were sent out to pick it up and take it back to them to avoid being seen. It's just _pretending_ to be an innocent baby when in fact it's plotting ways to kill me and escape. Well, I can assure you that I can kill these things, and unlike other humans, I have no qualms with doing it. They're nothing but empty shells wired to kill everything in sight."

Now that statement made her blood boil and Victoria angrily grasped the metal of the cage and glared at him. "Do _not_ threaten my family, you crazy, unstable lunatic. They are as living as any other creature on this planet, and if you weren't so _single-minded_ you would have realized that by now!"

They glared at each other before the anger suddenly faded from James' face and he looked at her with pity, making Victoria take a precautionary step back. She would have preferred anger over the look he was giving her now. "What have they done to you? Were you part of an experiment and brainwashed? Did you develop Stockholm syndrome while they held you against your will? Were you threatened? Whatever it was, I promise I'll find you help and show you what they really are, starting with that thing in there."

Victoria watched with uneasiness as James turned around and left the basement, stopping to turn on a lamp he must have brought from upstairs and flipping off the main lights. When the door closed behind him, the woman took a deep breath and used the little light given off from the lamp to walk back over and lie on the blanket beside the sparkling.

The sparkling looked over at her as he gnawed on the teddy bear and released a small squeak of pleasure when Victoria gently rubbed the horn nubs on his helm. "I think I just royally screwed the only chance of us getting out of here on own little guy."

**)(**

The next morning Wheeljack was already out of the road, searching for Victoria once more after leaving Bluestreak in charge of Star and Recall. He was honestly beginning to worry about the woman's disappearance, despite his continuous attempts to wave off Bluestreak's worries. Victoria would have called by now if only to tell them that she would be gone for however long she planned to stay away or give some explanation for not calling earlier.

The last thing he wanted was for one of Bluestreak's outrageous and vaguely morbid theories to be true. He'd made a promise to Terrence that he would look after the man's only daughter. What was he going to tell his human friend if his daughter had been kidnapped? Or turned up dead a week from now? Or worse, what if a Decepticon had slipped into the area undetected and taken her as leverage for a later confrontation with him and Bluestreak?

"_How the heck am I supposed to find her?" _Wheeljack wondered, all sensors on high as he traveled down the empty road. _"The reason we moved out here was because everything was so spaced out, which made it easier to keep from being found unless someone specifically knew our location. What a way for that 'advantage' to come back and bite us in the aft." _

Wheeljack reeved his engine, taking a moment to wistfully remember the sleek alt-form he had given up after landing on Earth. It had seemed like a good idea at the time, what with all the stuff he knew he would eventually be hauling around. Some of the things he fiddled with were highly volatile, and for all his explosions (accidental or purposely) he wasn't dumb enough to carry those things within his subspace. Trucks had a bed with more room and are a lot easier to load/unload than a car. So what if he had to forfeit speed? Or greater mobility? And sexy, sleek form…

…great, now he was just making himself depressed! Didn't he already have enough on his plate to deal with? A missing woman, two upset sparklings, and a Bluestreak who seemed like he was about to have a mental breakdown either from overwhelming (somewhat unfound) guilt or from Star driving him insane. That little Seekerlet—without Victoria there to impress, he was making the Praxian's life hell. The engineer would have found it funny under different circumstances.

What was he going to do? He had already asked around town and traveled along the numerous roads in search of signs where that stupid station wagon might have broken down. Maybe he should have pulled a Red Alert and put a tracker in the vehicle when he had the chance…

It was a good thing that the road had been empty because anyone on Wheeljack's tail would have had their front end smashed in. It also would have been pretty hard to explain why the crash didn't leave a mark on him, but he was too busy leaving tread marks on the pavement as he reversed to inspect what his optical sensors had picked up to really care about that.

After parking on the side of the road, Wheeljack activated his holoform and jumped out of his cab. He noticed the slight indent of tire marks leading to the tree line and groaned. What he thought he saw better _not_ be what he thinks it is. He had _specifically told her_ not to go anywhere near that man alone.

He threw his hands into the air once he was finally close enough to see past the tree limbs that kept the station wagon strategically hidden from the road. "Oh come on! Why? Just why is this the one time she doesn't feel listening to me? I mean, I'm not vain enough to believe that she listens to everything I say, but she _usually_ listens to the important stuff." He huffed and headed back to his alt-mode but not before turning back to glare once more at the inanimate object. "You are _so_ scrap metal mister. And that's only if I get the urge to even come back for you. You are dead to me!"

Wheeljack allowed the holoform to fall apart once it stood outside his door and reeved up his engine. Well, at least he knew now where his next destination would be.

**)(**

Victoria paced around the small area she was contained in. She had thought the days she was stuck in the cabin with a house full of mini-Transformers running around her feet had been bad—now she wished to go back to those times. She'd take the annoyances and the little forms running around her feet over being trapped in a cage in a dimly lit basement that was cold, almost nauseous from hunger at this point because she hadn't eaten in _two days_, with a sparkling in need of a proper checkup and a certifiable lunatic stomping around above her head, and she _really_ needed to pee.

Slag her for being suspicious and not taking advantage of the opportunity to go to the bathroom.

The brunette snarled at the device she held in her hand as she paced, almost giving in to the temptation of throwing it at the closest wall. On top of all of her before mentioned problems, by the time she had even thought about using her cellphone to contact Wheeljack and plan a proper rescue, the stupid battery had died! Not that it probably would have proven useless anyway. If Wheeljack and Bluestreak had been unable to pick up a signal from the sparkling during their stakeouts, what were the odds of her cellphone being able to pick up a signal from in here?

And she still didn't want to draw Bluestreak here through the bond without being able to properly warn him; James' threat still bounced around in her head and simply solidified the block that kept the mech out. It was times like these that she wished they understood the bonds more. Maybe they'd be able to figure out what allowed bonded people to communicate with actual words across the bonds instead of sometimes misleading emotions, or if that anomaly was just because she was human.

"Stupid phone!" she finally cursed, giving into the temptation and throwing the phone onto the concrete floor. It landed with a clatter, the back of it popping off on impact and sending the battery skittering a few inches away. "One of the few times I actually bother to use you and you're no help at all."

Victoria drew in a deep breath in an attempt to cool her anxious filled anger and walked over to check on the sparkling that was in deep recharge in the bassinet. His fans made a tiny, almost indecipherable rattling noise with each breath he took, and he nuzzled the white bear he had in a strangle hold. A tiny shine of blue breached the space between his chest and the toy, and the small spark flickered as she laid a comforting hand on his helm.

They were going to get out of there; she'd make sure of that.

Victoria went back to pacing. Her attempt to drag James into conversation and get around to showing him that Cybertronian life was similar to humans had been a total fail. She was pretty sure that even if she had been able to keep their conversation going, James' previous experiences had him thoroughly convinced that all Cybertronians were exactly alike—lifeless robots programmed to kill anything they encounter.

She stopped to pull at the chains that kept the door firmly shut. While he viewed the alien life forms with disgust, there was obviously something in him that kept him from just being a coldhearted killer. He didn't seem very comfortable with keeping her locked up, no matter how hard he tried to conceal it. He brought her food even though she refused it; looked willing to let her out if she needed to use the bathroom; and had even snuck down to the basement last night when he thought she was asleep to slip some bedding into the cage. He had also looked genuinely concerned at the thought of her being used by the Autobots.

Was it possible that she might have misjudged him? Of course he was crazy, but what if it was paranoia that made him be that way? Red Alert had been a little out there at times—not to the point of _violence_, but there had been times that she was convinced that Ratchet would shoot him up with sedatives. And if he was mentally ill, maybe his outrageous actions made sense to him.

Of course, that didn't automatically rule him out as a threat. Whatever his association with this Sector 7 place had been, it had ultimately given him a "trigger finger." His first assumption for anything was that it was caused by that organization and the people who worked for it. If it were ever proven that someone might be associated with Sector 7, Victoria didn't think for moment that he wouldn't hesitate getting rid of that threat.

Victoria released the chain and stepped back when the door opened and watched as James struggled down the steps with a huge cardboard box. It must have been heavy because he grunted from exertion when he was finally able to put it down. Emitting an over exaggerated sigh of relief, James turned around to face her with a grim expression. The woman crossed her arms and lifted her chin defiantly.

"Well at least you've got spirit," he commented while turning back to the box. In one sudden swoop of his arms, he cleared the table containing the tools and loudly pulled the table from the wall to position closer to the cage and near the middle of the room. He turned back to the box and removed a sheet to drape it across the now empty table. "Please stand aside while I relocate that thing."

Victoria shuffled backwards, not because she was intimidated by the clamps, syringes, and the little laboratory he began setting up but so that she was closer to the sparkling. "What are you about to do?"

"I'm going to prove that that thing is nothing but a machine. Not a sentient being or a baby like it's trying to trick us into believing."

"And how do you plan on doing that?"

"The same way I proved it with the others: by dissecting it."

Victoria swallowed the acrid taste that filled her mouth and completely shielded the bassinet from view. "Look. I've been trapped down here for two days, and I see now that you're not as bad as I had originally assumed. You've got a conscience—something that you don't find in a coldblooded killer. You stopped when he started crying before; you acknowledged that it wasn't just a machine-"

"And that's how they get you!" James shouted with conviction, pointing a pair of shaky forceps at her. "You _cannot_ trust these things! We struck a deal with one once; he worked with us to keep those other things out of the public sector. The moment we let him loose, he massacred a whole town. I won't let what happened to my wife and son, happen to more innocent people!"

Whatever convincing argument that had been on the tip of the woman's tongue vanished the second after his outburst and she stared at him, wide-eyed and slack jawed. James turned back to his work, his movements much tenser before as he realized what he had just said. "So that's the real reason behind your hate. I'm so sorry; it must have been horrible to-"

"_Don't,"_ James said, stopping her with a raised hand. "Don't spout your generic sympathies to me. I got plenty of those when Sector 7 swept the incident under the rug, blaming a gas explosion or some shit like that. That event opened my eyes to a lot all the things that secret organization was doing. They don't care for public safety, so now it's my duty to keep whoever I can safe from these creatures. I'm _this close_ to developing a device that will allow us to pick out those things as they hide in plain sight. There won't be incidents like mine where someone is run off the road because an alien took on the likeness of his car. That thing you're trying to protect is the only live specimen I've ever had, and I'm not wasting any more time when it might have the exact answers I need."

"That's too bad then because you're not getting him," Victoria said confidently, taking an unconscious step back as he moved around the table with a key in hand. Her eyes darted to her messenger bag sitting in the corner with her taser. She needed that taser but moving would leave the sparkling unprotected, and James was already pulling the chains off and opening the door. "I'm not going to allow you to hurt him!"

"You don't have a choice," James insisted, a fervent look in his eyes as his glasses glinted ominously in the light. "I told you, I don't harm people unless they're an imminent threat. Don't make yourself a threat to me."

Victoria foolishly ignored the advice and charged at him, painfully connecting with his stomach and sending them both crashing to the floor. It was a stupid move, she would later admit, but at the moment it seemed like the only thing she could do to keep him from getting the sparkling. A hundred-something pound woman tackling an older man that probably weighed closer to two hundred? Yeah, not exactly the brightest move she could have made.

James pushed her off roughly and got to his feet a lot faster than she did but made the mistake of leaving of turning his back to her as he moved forward for the sparkling, who had woken up and began to produce tiny sounds of distress. Victoria staggered to her feet and took a running leap onto the man's back, wrapping her arms around his neck and squeezing as tightly as possible. He choked and lurched forward under her weight, stumbling into the bassinet and sending it falling to the floor. Thankfully the sparkling rolled harmlessly from the bed unhurt but now crying in fear and surprise.

James fell to his knees as Victoria continued to stubbornly squeeze him, and in a last ditch effort to get rid of her, he twisted around and heavily fell onto her. The woman gasped in pain as the full weight of the man fell onto her, and her head connected with the floor with a sickening crack.

She must have blacked out for a moment because the next thing she knew, James had already collected the sparkling, locked her back in the cage, and was securing the sparkling to the table to keep him from wiggling. Cries reverberated through the room as the sparkling worked himself into a crying fit, and Victoria winced as she rolled over and attempted to stand up. "James, please stop!"

James didn't even glance at the woman as he picked up a syringe. The sparkling quieted as he caught sight of the glass glinting in the light and stared at it with bright optics. With precise precision, the needle punctured one of the fluid lines that traveled up the sparkling's arm, and the plunger was pulled back to extract diluted blue Energon that run through it.

The sparkling remained terrifyingly silent as James withdrew the needle, capped it, and stuck it into the pocket of his shirt for safe keeping. "Now, I'll have time to analyze that later. Moving on from that, none of the creatures I've seen before this one had the blue flickering in their chest."

Victoria's blood ran cold as she watched the crazy man rooted through the box he had placed on the floor for a tool he hadn't had room for on the table. It almost looked like a pair of small gardening shears but obviously they were meant for something other than pruning stubborn bushes. The sparkling must have picked that up as well because he let a pathetic whimper and offlined his optics. "James you don't understand what you're about to do. If you damage his spark then he'll die!"

"You can't kill something that's not living in the first place."

The shears were only inches away from the rabidly pulsating spark when a loud banging came from the floor above. Victoria breathed a sigh of relief when James stopped to look back at the door he had left. "Who the- ugh. I swear if Leland pitched a fit and sent one of his mindless goons to force me to answer the phone…"

He trailed off as he tossed the shears back into the box and stomped up the stairs without a second thought. Victoria waited until he vanished into the room above before aggressively shaking the cage. The sparkling onlined his optics and watched as she desperately attempted to get the door open.

Meanwhile, James was traversing through the house, anger steadily rising with each bang against his front door. Patience much? He'd answer the damn door when he got there and constantly knocking on it wouldn't make him walk any faster! Leland could definitely expect an answer to his phone call tonight, and it wouldn't be because he was suddenly onboard with helping his old "friend."

James reached the door in his own time, and nimble fingers flew across the various locks he had installed. Even he would admit that he had a slight obsession with locks. Every door in the house had at least three: one on the doorknob, a deadbolt, and a latch commonly found in most hotel/motel rooms; the front door was just unlucky enough to have about twice as many. Then he had a couple of dozen different designed locks stashed in his junk drawer or some box lying around the house. He had absolutely no idea when the habit of having multiple locks on hand started, but he did know that it started way before his paranoia really kicked in.

Anyway by the time he had the door swinging open, James was _not_ in a particularly happy mood. The constant banging was like a nail being steadily driven into his head and he had more important things to do than chat up some mindless goon. Where was the rifle he used to run people off?

"Yes?" he asked through gritted teeth as he eyed the man standing in front of him. And people thought he was weird; at least he didn't run around in a stained lab coat, ratty boots, a bird's nest disguised as hair, and a pair of goggles swinging from his neck. "May I help you?"

Dark blue eyes flashed to an area behind him, and James couldn't help but think that those eyes didn't really go with the dark tanned skin of the man. "Ah, yes. You see my…daughter disappeared two nights ago and hasn't called or anything. I've been going around to our nearest neighbors and asking if they've seen her."

"Neighbors, huh? My nearest 'neighbor' is nearly an hour away."

"Yeah," the mysterious man said a little embarrassingly. "I guess I expanded past neighbors after the first two houses. But listen, I'm _very _worried about her. She isn't' the type to just run off and _48 Hours_ will give a father some gruesome ideas. The local police department wasn't much help because she's above the legal age and they figured she just got tired of living at home."

"Sorry but I don't see very many people out here," James said as he moved to close the door. The man's arm shot out to prevent it from closing and James grunted with the effort of trying to get it closed. It was like pushing against a wall. "Look man, I can't help you-"

"Just take a look at her picture," the lab assistant wannabe insisted, reaching into his lab coat with the hand that didn't hold the door open and pulling out a wallet sized photo. "It's a little dated, but she hasn't changed that much since her senior year."

The picture was shoved into his face, and James stared at the school picture. He had seen that forced smile once, right after he had held a gun to the woman's head. He tried to snatch the picture away but yelped when a strong shock greeted his fingertips. He pulled back and stared at the man, who had also pulled back and replaced the photo.

Something didn't feel right…

James leaned around the figure in his door and looked out into the yard. Sitting on the very edge of it was a pristine white Toyota truck with custom red and green accents running down the sides of it. The vehicle was too flashy for him and past experience had taught him to be weary of flashy cars. Those things might have had the technology to blend seamlessly into society, but at the same time they liked to stick out.

"I haven't seen your 'daughter' and if you don't get off my property now then I'll be forced to make you," James threatened while retreating back inside. If this was one of those things that had brainwashed Victoria then he wasn't letting it anywhere near her.

A deep frown spread across the (fake) man's face and he stepped back. "A little extreme don't you think?"

"Like you said, the cops aren't much help." James slammed the door shut and meticulously redid every lock and latch. Afterwards he peeked out of the peephole and saw the man just standing on the porch with a concentrated expression. He blinked and reeled back at the sight of an empty porch.

He knew it! Those things—they had learned how to mimic real people! This was bad, horrible in fact. Disguising themselves as cars was one thing; people were a completely different matter. They were beginning to integrate into the population; next thing you know, one of them will get elected president and initiate another world war, and when the humans had almost completely annihilated themselves, those robots and whoever created them would reveal themselves and enslave the surviving human race.

…yes, it was an out there theory, but it wasn't the worse theory running through his head at the moment. _That one_ actually made the most sense.

James raced back to the basement, ignored the thing clicking desperately towards the cage, and focused in on the wall behind the staircase. His eyes flickered across the stone blocks that composed the wall and dug his fingers into the ridges surrounding one block. "This probably doesn't help my case of sanity, but I sometimes hide important stuff in the wall. A safe is too obvious and easily broken into and everyone would look for a creaky floorboard. But _no one_ thinks about examining the wall."

James pulled the fake block out and reached into the cavity to pull out what looked like a flamethrower. "Come to find out one of the strongest weapons we have against them is liquid nitrogen. They seem to be especially vulnerable to extreme cold and-"

The weapon fell from his hands as he turned around and found the woman lying on the floor of the cage, her back towards him and the back of her head matted with what looked like blood. A terrible keen escaped him as he raced across the room to unlock the cage. "No, no, no, no! H-hold on! You were never actually meant to get hurt. You were just–you kept getting in the way…"

His voice trailed off as he hesitantly reached out to turn her over when she suddenly came to life and jerked her hidden arm up to connect with his stomach. A pain filled scream was torn from him and his body felt as if it was on fire before all went black.

Victoria grunted as James' eyes rolled up into his head and he fell forward to land heavily on her. She groaned and pushed the dead weight off to sit up and look watched the body flop onto floor beside her, convulsing occasionally as the remnant electricity dispersed through his body before becoming completely still. A numbing feeling washed over her as she blankly stared at the man. She looked at the taser in her hand, set to the lowest setting possible. Wheeljack had told her it was specifically meant to be used if a Decepticon attacked her, that there was a high potential of it killing a human if used on one…

A cry caught her attention, and Victoria staggered to her feet, leaving behind a bloody handprint on the concrete. She grabbed her bag from where she had thrown it out of the way, not bothering to retrieve the screwdriver she had used to pierce the palm of her hand and fake the dire looking head injury, and gingerly placed the weapon in a side pocket. She ignored the trembling of her hands and hurried over to where the sparkling was still pinned to the table.

The sparkling beeped in pain as the clamps were released, and Victoria cooed in an attempt to comfort him as she massaged his tiny wrists. His little servo clenched around her thumb in a death grip and he began to tremble and hiccup with oncoming tears.

"It's alright now," she reassured him, gathering him up in her arms and holding him close. "He's not…he's not going to be able to hurt you ever again."

Victoria jumped at the sound of a crash form above and tensed when it sounded like half the house was knocked down. She stared up at the door of the basement as sunlight poured through it and continued to just stand there, listening to the familiar, but faint, sounds of a Transformer moving around until a figure suddenly blocked the light.

"Victoria!" Wheeljack called out in relief when he noticed the stunned woman looking up at him. He ran down the stairs and dragged her into a smothering hold. "Primus, don't you ever to do that again! Do you know how worried we were? I was starting to fear that a Decepticon had grabbed you!" He pushed her back and noticed the sparkling that clung to her shirt and stared up at him with frightened amber optics. "By the AllSpark…but how? There weren't any indicators that he was here. I wouldn't have looked here at all if I hadn't found your car a mile away from here. We need to talk about that too."

"James." She stopped to wince at the name. "James knew about you guys. Maybe he figured out how to properly hide a Cybertronian."

"Wait, he _knows_ about us. How?"

"He _knew_. He said he worked for this place called Sector 7 and that they had one of you that they called N.B.E 01."

Wheeljack looked behind Victoria and finally noticed the body sprawled out on the floor. "Oh. You two go wait outside. I'll take care of things down here."

Victoria nodded and carried the trembling sparkling out of the basement. She blinked as her eyes adjusted to the light from the sun. She examined the front wall of the house that had been destroyed, covering the majority of the room in splintered wood and burying everything. She methodically stepped through the debris to find Wheeljack's real form sitting right outside the house's new opening.

The engineer's door flew open, and she didn't think twice to climb in and huddle up on his seat. Comforted by the soft rumbling of his engine and the sparkling curled up against her, she finally allowed herself to process what had happened in the past two days.

But all of her thoughts kept coming back to the image of James sprawled unmoving on the floor of the basement.

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**AN: **There we go! I think it came out way more dramatic than I intended, but oh well. I've learned over the past two years that not everything I write comes out as planned :) Now I have to go write a speech, an annotated bibliography, and a two page essay over _The Epic of Gilgamesh. _Yay college...

Until next, uh...whenever I get the time to update ;D


	11. Aftermath

**AN: **Sorry about the delay! Real life stuff happened, and Vicky kept getting on my nerves for this chapter ): As a matter of fact, everyone got on my nerves for this chapter! Bluestreak, Wheeljack, freaking James—gah! They wouldn't let me write what I wanted to write. So yeah…writer's block. It happened :) I'm still not completely happy with this chapter either.

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A New Version of Reality

Chapter Nine

Aftermath

**We are all mistaken sometimes; sometimes we do wrong things, things that have bad consequences. But it does not mean we are evil, or that we cannot be trusted ever afterward. ****― Alison Croggon**

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Star glared at Bluestreak from where he pouted in timeout. How _dare_ that mech put him in timeout? He hadn't done anything wrong! Recall had enjoyed being written on with markers; as a matter of fact, he'd even given Star complementary buzzes for the flowers that now adorned his chassis. Bluestreak was just jealous because Vivi hadn't sat down and shown _him_ how to draw flowers like she had with Star.

She obviously liked Star best. And it was going to stay that way too.

Recall crawled by chasing a fluttering bug with pretty wings, and Star stared at it enviously. He couldn't wait to be able to do that. Then he could fly off and find the bigger Seekers he dreamed about before Recall woke him with crying fits. He bet he could have found Vivi if he could fly too. He just knew that flying was superior to clinging to the ground.

Star clicked to get the other sparkling's attention, and Recall stopped to sit back and look at him expectedly. He giggled when the Seekerlet began to make funny faces and copied almost immediately. That was one of the reasons Star put up with him. Star enjoyed being the center of attention and with that came the enjoyment of being copied. On some level it gave him the sense of having his own little follower and the ego boost of knowing that someone was really paying attention to him. He didn't necessarily enjoy being isolated like timeout made him be.

"Recall, leave Star alone. He's in timeout right now."

Star hissed as Bluestreak came over to take Recall away from where he was forced to sit on the porch steps. He took everything from Star! His markers, Vivi, now Recall—he was jealous of everything Star had.

Stupid mech; he hated him…what was he doing with that sponge? And tub of soapy water? Why was he lowering Recall into the tub?

Bluestreak looked up at the offended screeches coming from Star. He looked down at Recall gurgling happily and splashing in the plastic tub that he and Wheeljack used for quick clean ups. "No, Star. Your flowers can't stay on Recall because they'll stain and become permanent. Next time you'll think twice before using Recall as a canvas."

The Autobot could feel the mechling's glaring optics melting holes into his armor and ignored the growls being directed towards him. Had the Seekerlet actually expected the other mechling to run around with crooked flowers on him for the rest of his life? Apparently he did because he scowled harshly when the colors from the flowers began to fade.

"I'm sorry but waiting until later to clean him isn't a good idea. If it was armor instead of his protoform then it could wait, but we can't use the same highly concentrated solutions we use to clean our armor. Neither of your protoforms has had time to properly harden, so using those chemicals on it would probably eat a hole through and damage what your protoform is meant to protect. You can't heal a protoform without a CR chamber."

Star didn't seem to care for the sharpshooter's explanation and turned away to pout. Bluestreak released a weary sigh and concentrated on keeping Recall still while he scrubbed. Why did the sparkling have to be so _tiny? _When he had gotten the marker off, he let the sparkling loose and smiled as Recall splashed the water with enthusiasm, giggling when soap suds splashed up onto his face.

"You can get up now Star, but I hope you've learned not to draw on others." Star snatched back the markers Bluestreak had confiscated and pointedly uncapped the pink one to make a streak on Bluestreak's leg armor before running off. "And of course you didn't. You know what? You're like a mini-Decepticon in the making and you're not even a youngling yet."

Recall noticed that Star was now running around again and struggled to climb out of the tub, clicking frantically at the Seekerlet for help. Star detoured from running towards what was becoming the "The Sparkling Tree" and grabbed Recall's servos to pull him out. Decepticon in the making or not, Bluestreak found it amusing that Star would go out of his way to care for the smaller sparkling when he felt like it. Wheeljack told him it was because of some instinct, which would favor Star being a leader of a trine instead of a follower, and the fact that the Seekerlet had pretty much been doing his own thing for the past two days seemed to solidify that theory.

Bluestreak watched them stagger across the yard before Star got tired and put Recall down to continue by himself. Recall didn't seem to care, and he attempted to stand for a while. It was fun to watch Recall mimic people. He was a very bright and ambitious sparkling when he wanted to be, ignoring the fact that he was too small to do certain things. He even rolled around sometimes when he saw one of the Autobots moving around in their alt-mode after seeing Wheeljack transform the first time and coming to the realization that the cars he saw were really two of his caretakers.

The one thing he was determined to mimic was how to walk. He crawled most of the time out of necessity, but there were random times of the day that he would devote on learning how to balance and strengthening the cables that would help support him by using objects nearest to him to pull himself up and wobbly stand. Star was kind of an aft during these times because he'd randomly walk past and push Recall over for the sparkling to start all over again. Like right now he was backtracking to knock Recall over before running back towards the tree.

"You need some help?" Bluestreak asked, walking over to stand above the chittering sparkling now lying on his back. He extended a finger twice the size of Recall and held it out for Recall to grab onto. "Pull yourself up buddy."

Recall smiled as he managed to stand and nuzzled the finger in thanks, springy hair leaving minuscule scratches behind. Star on the other had had turned to see what was happening and scowled once more.

"Okay," Bluestreak continued and slowly moved his finger in the direction they wanted to go. "Now put one pede in front of the other. Just like that! Now keep going."

It was awkward to crouch down so low to the ground and then lean down even further to help support the sparkling as he took his first shaky steps. Bluestreak belatedly realized that Victoria would be upset to miss such a huge milestone for the little mech and took special care to document the event and save it as an extension to send to her phone later…when they were on actual speaking terms again.

His door-wings reflexively lowered even as he plastered a fake smile on his face for the sparklings' sake. What had possessed him to say those things to his human friend? He could take the easy way out and say that it had just been the stress of the last few days. Wheeljack may have joked earlier about him not being ready to a parent, but Bluestreak saw that as a definite fact now. He was too young, and quite honestly, he didn't have a clue of what he was supposed to do with them. He was ashamed to admit that he had actually been happy that his holo-generator had broken when Recall first began his crying fits because it had given the young sharpshooter an excuse for not being able to help.

Victoria was doing way more than he had ever done. He could just hope that she would forgive him and stop blocking him. He hated it when she did that.

Bluestreak was so lost in his thoughts that it took him a moment to realize that Recall was no longer on his finger. His optics shuttered at the sight of Star glaring up at him as he forced Recall back to the ground. "Star, what are you doing? Why won't you let Recall learn to walk?"

Star huffed and impatiently chittered up at Bluestreak while using wild gestures. Recall watched the Seekerlet with bright optics and started flailing his arms around in an effort to copy him. Bluestreak could only sigh. "He's gotta learn how to walk eventually Star. Constantly pushing him down isn't helping."

The Seekerlet's ruby optics flickered upward in an "eye roll" as if the Praxian was missing the point before deeming the very same mech as not worth of his time. Bluestreak watched in an attempt to understand the constantly unsatisfied sparkling, but all Star did was chirp and beep at Recall in their secret little language. Recall quizzically chirped back, and Star's next action surprised the Autobot.

Star sighed in exasperation and sat down in front of the other sparkling. With slow, exaggerated movements, he showed Recall step-by-step how to stand on his own, moving from his sitting position to kneeling on his knees and finally using his arms as leverage to stand. Recall seemed to have an "Oooohhhh!" moment and trilled at Star. Bluestreak couldn't help but picture the two as a kind of student-teacher pair.

And wonders did not cease there. Bluestreak watched slack jawed as Recall painstakingly went through the exact same steps Star had until he was standing on two wobbly pedes. Star nodded approvingly before haughtily looking up at Bluestreak. _"See?" _was what the stare said. _"He can do it on his own, without _your _help."_

"Way to go Recall!" Bluestreak exclaimed even as the mechling wobbled too far and lost his balance. "You're one step closer to waking on your own now, and it's all thanks to Star."

The Seekerlet puffed up with pride, and Recall stood again to get the same excited reaction from the mech again. After standing, falling, and repeating the process again a few times, Star got tired of the waste of time and clicked to regain the other sparkling's attention. The pair fell back into the student-teacher persona, Star carefully showing how to lift one pede after the other and Recall sitting and intently absorbing the demonstration. Even Bluestreak sat down this time to watch the Seekerlet almost robotically walk around in a tight circle.

It was something to watch Star teach the younger sparkling how to walk. Star being an aft had an actual reason behind it. He had wanted to get Recall to stand on his own, not use other things to pull him up because Star hadn't needed to perform that step. Bluestreak had no doubt that Star's mind perceived that as wrong and went about in his indirect way to make the sparkling do it right. Bluestreak interfering had just prompted Star to become clear with his teachings.

Recall was holding one of Star's hands, mimicking the robotic moves with the Seekerlet reaching down occasionally to fix his form, when Bluestreak became distracted by a random ping across his comm. network. It wasn't a message or a prompt to answer a comm. link, but just a simple indicator that someone was entering the area. Looking up, he could see the outline of Wheeljack turning off the main road and onto the driveway, kicking up dirt as he went.

The sparklings remained oblivious to the mech pulling up, too distracted by their current occupation of getting Recall to walk correctly, so Bluestreak stealthily stood up to greet the older Autobot. "Wheeljack, did you find-" He paused as Wheeljack's passenger door flew open and out slid the very human he was about to ask about. "Vicky! You're alright! I was so worried when you didn't come back home, and when Wheeljack came back and told me you hadn't been seen in town I got even more worried. But now you're back so…"

He trailed off when the woman didn't even glance in his direction but instead headed towards Star and Recall. Star noticed her first and placed his servos on his hips to buzz in annoyance, though Bluestreak could see how his ruby optics lightened in relief. Recall fell back onto his tiny aft and squealed with joy when Victoria entered his line of sight. He shakily stood up as she bent down to his optic level and gasped softly in awe at whatever she showed him.

Bluestreak walked closer and gasped himself when he noticed the tiny sparkling curled up in her arms in recharge. He was so…_small._ Bluestreak hadn't even been aware that it was possible for sparklings to get smaller than Recall was. But here was the smallest sparkling he'd ever seen comfortably curled up in the human woman's arm like a newborn child.

Star sidled closer to help keep Recall balanced as the smaller mechling reached out to tentatively touch the helm of the newspark. Yellow-orange optics onlined and stared in confusion at the bright blue optics staring down at him with wonder. A breathtaking smile lit up the older sparkling's face, and he let go of Star to wrap his arms around the sparkling, cooing softly and rubbing his cheek against the top of the other's helm.

Bluestreak watched with fascination as the sparklings' visible sparks lit up brightly on contact, and he did a double take at the sight of elegant blue wisps extending between them. He looked at Wheeljack in shock and open and closed his mouth, speechless for once in his life. "What?"

Wheeljack grinned behind blast mask at the only word the shocked mech was able to squeak out. "What? You've never seen a spark bond in process? Well, it's not really 'in-progress' since it's already been established, but I guess you could say it's being…re-established. Yeah, I think that's a good way to describe it."

"But how is that possible? How can we see…" Bluestreak gestured uselessly at Recall, who had been allowed to pull the smaller bitlet from Victoria's arms and hold him fully in his lap and closer to his spark like a little doll. _"That?"_

"They don't have armor to properly shield them," Wheeljack answered with a careless shrug. "Star's protoform is more durable and the glass compartment that surrounds his spark has fully developed, as it should with his advanced age, but Recall and the new bitlet's protoform metal is still very malleable and the glass compartment is less developed. Actually, it looks like the smaller one hasn't even developed a proper chassis, so that would mean that the metal is thin enough for a bond to actually form through it…don't look at me like that. I told you and Vicky that sparklings had a way of defying many of the natural laws we have come to recognize."

"It's just…weird. Seeing it actually happen and all."

"I've seen stranger things; been _a part_ of those stranger things. Next time you see Percy, ask him about our final project back in the Science Academy. Now _that_ was strange, and Ratchet still refuses to believe the story is real. He's such a non-believer that I bet if Unicron himself were to show up and bite him in the aft, he'd blame the Twins for pranking him again…or me for creating a miniature Unicron to bite him in the aft. There were actual blueprints for that project at some point…"

Wheeljack stepped forward, still muttering something about the "Mini-Cron Project," and bent down to scoop the pair of sparklings up. Recall squeaked and looked up at the engineer questioningly and received a casual pat to the helm. "Time for a surprise checkup! I gotta see how your brother's doing and it looks like you're just coming along for the ride. Vicky, you should go get cleaned up. You look, um…pretty bad and all."

Victoria nodded and almost mechanically stood and turned to enter the house without uttering a single sound. Bluestreak's door kibble twitched in apprehension as she vanished inside without a glance in his direction. Star ran after her, twittering and buzzing what could only be an exaggerated account of the last two days, and the sharpshooter decided to talk to Wheeljack before attempting to approach the woman.

"Wheeljack?" Bluestreak started after entering the barn. He walked over to stand beside the engineer and watched the sparklings be placed on his work table while he pulled a datapad out of his subspace. The younger mech subconsciously noted that it was the same datapad he had referred to during Recall and Star's first examination. "What's wrong with her? Where did she find that sparkling?"

"That is something you need to ask her about." Wheeljack casually reached down to catch Recall as the sparkling attempted to show his newly found brother what the work table was used for. AKA perilously rolling over the edge like the silly sparkling he was. The golden optiked child did not look amused. "I'm serious; you and Victoria need to sit down and properly discuss the argument you had and what happened to her afterwards. You two need to learn how to properly conduct your bond, and I don't mean knowing how to shut each other out when you don't want the other to know what's going on. I told this to Victoria on the way here, and I'm gonna repeat myself to you in hopes that one of you actually listen.

"A bond is more than just shooting emotions back and forth. You actually have to _communicate_ with one another what those emotions mean. I take some of the blame for the blow up between you two because I unwisely assumed that you two were mature enough to understand that, and I take more than half of the blame for her running to that crackpot's home to prove us wrong. All in all, we each learned some valuable lessons over the last few days and got some things to work out because our situation is not as perfect as we liked to pretend it was. Now I suggest you wait until she comes to you, okay? Being pushy right now is not a good idea. Until you get everything straightened out, you can pretend that I'm not even here."

Bluestreak nodded and took his fellow Autobot's advice to spark before exiting the barn to allow Wheeljack to work in peace. He moved to sit down beside the porch and waited patiently for Victoria to come back outside.

**)(**

Victoria swept a towel across the clouded mirror and watched as the humidity contained in the room clouded it back over just as quickly. She didn't know how long she had sat on the floor of the tub, simply allowing the hot water from the showerhead to beat down on her back and wash away the grime that accumulated during her captivity. Though her body had gradually relaxed under the constant beating of water, her mind had continued at almost hyperactive speeds.

Could she have done something different? Something that didn't end with James lying lifelessly on the floor? Death in person was completely different than it was depicted on TV. She already knew that from watching her mother pass away, but even that was different from what she had done.

She paused her thinking to yank a brush through her hair, wincing at the knots she yanked out. Wheeljack had been worried on the way back and relieved to find her _and_ the sparkling, but as they got closer to the house, he had started to get more and more livid. He had been mad that she hadn't even bothered to tell him about her "half-aft" plan, and that she had sent both him and Bluestreak to the brink of worry.

"_You have got to start _talking_ to us Victoria," _he had said after the anger had passed and disappointment had set in. She had wished he had stayed angry because that would have been easier to deal with. _"I respect you like the adult you are, but if you had actually told me about your plan, I would have done something to help. I wouldn't have liked it, but if that had been what it took to convince you to let it go, then I would have been all for it. As an added bonus you could have said 'I told you so!' when we found the sparkling._

"_And you need to learn that a bond isn't just swapping emotions," _he had gone to say when he was sure his first words had been properly absorbed. _"How are you and Bluestreak going to get through the rest of your lives snapping at each other because you allow your emotions to fester and stay bottled up inside until they become too much and you overwhelm the other with emotions not even theirs? We could have avoided this altogether if you two had actually talked about it instead of ignoring it and pretending everything was okay. Rest assured I'm gonna tell the same thing to Blue, but you need to hear it and actually let it soak in."_

Victoria yanked a shirt over her head and stared at her foggy image in the mirror. She was a stubborn person—she wasn't about to deny that—and she had lived by a certain philosophy for a long time: _ I can do everything on my own. _Even while living with the two Autobots she had retained that little motto. She didn't feel the need to tell them about every little thing she set out to do. She could take care of herself if she had too; she didn't _need _anyone to do that for her. If she wanted to keep her emotions and thoughts to herself, then that was her choice.

And how unfair was that to Blue? To Wheeljack?

Victoria still had a hard time understanding that she wasn't on her own anymore. After a decade of _not _living alone, you would have thought that she understood that by now. But there was a reason why it was somewhat harder to learn things as you got older. Your mind begins to become so set in its ways that it doesn't want to change.

She hadn't even thought of what her taking off without telling either mech what she was doing would make them worry so much. She had been too focused on keeping her end of the bond closed that she hadn't felt Bluestreak's sadness, hurt, and immense worry. She hadn't stopped to even consider telling Wheeljack about her plan, so sure that it was something she could accomplish on her own. Looking back now, she could see so many of her mistakes clearly and knew that if she had chosen a different way to deal with things that Wheeljack wouldn't be disappointed or she would have been able to look Bluestreak in the optic instead of ignoring him out of shame.

James might not have ended up dead.

The woman sighed and moved to exit the bathroom. There was no reason to dwell on what couldn't be changed; she had at least learned _that_. She had to continue to move forward because she had a trio of sparklings to take care, with the help of Wheeljack and Bluestreak of course. At least, she hoped they were still willing to help.

When the door opened, Star immediately jumped up to greet her, making her frown. "Were you waiting out here the entire time?"

Star nodded, signaling that he was beginning to better understand English, and began to click and grunt while clinging to her arm. She winced as his spindly fingers pinched her delicate skin but didn't complain as her Seekerlet continued to talk to her. He continued his speech as they went down the stairs and out the backdoor before clamming up and glaring at where Bluestreak sat. The sharpshooter noticed them and glared right back. "Whatever he said it's not true."

"You know I can't understand a word he says," Victoria said in exasperation as the jealously between them became nearly palpable. "Bluestreak, he's just a little kid."

"He's an evil little kid," Bluestreak insisted when Star pointedly stuck his glossa out at him. "I swear he's a 'Con in the making."

"No he is _not._ He just needs a little more attention than others." Star began to purr as the human gave him a kiss on his domed head and a quick pet to his wing nubs. "See? He's a little angel…when he wants to be."

"At least you're not completely delusional," Bluestreak muttered before suddenly feeling awkward. They were talking to each other like nothing in the past two days had happened. "Vicky, I uh…I wanna apologize…for what I said."

Victoria gave Star's wings another pat before gently pushing the mechling in the direction of the barn. He huffed at having to leave and glared at Bluestreak one last time before running over to the barn where he could hear Wheeljack excitedly explaining something to a clueless Recall. He wanted to know what the engineer was talking about too!

When Star was safely in the barn, Victoria turned to look up at Bluestreak, who looked utterly guilty. "It's not your fault-"

"Yes it is!" Bluestreak insisted, his wings fluttering in frustration at himself. "I should have said something the first time I felt your stress. I should have done something to help. But I just sat there and watched you get worse, and the least I could have done was tell Wheeljack because he didn't understand how bad it got until that night before we had our fight, and then you wouldn't have left, and-"

The woman stopped him with a firm slap to his leg armor. "Shut up!" Bluestreak reeled back in shock, and Victoria sighed. "I'm sorry, but I just can't stand here and let you blame yourself for this. _None of this_ was your fault."

"But-" He stopped and sagged under her glare. "You needed me and I wasn't there for you."

Victoria bit her lip at the sight of his sadness and felt like tearing up herself. "No, Blue. You weren't, but that wasn't your fault. I…I was being stupid. I didn't think I needed help, and I didn't stop to think about asking for any either. I wasn't really thinking about the bond either, and I'm sorry for that too. I made you worry and get upset and that was purely my fault. Can you believe that after all we've been through, I'm still hardheaded enough to believe I can do everything on my own?"

"Yeah, but that's what makes you, you. Just like explosions and being perverted makes Wheeljack, Wheeljack." Victoria smiled at that, and in return received a smile from Bluestreak and the happy fluttering of door-wings. "I'm still sorry for what I said. I didn't mean any of it, and I know it hurt you a lot."

"I know you didn't." She paused and sucked in a deep breath before allowing her mental wall to fall and reach outwards. It was still weird to concentrate on the bond, and she didn't spend much time on it before finding the familiar path to Bluestreak and flooding it with her forgiveness, sadness, and (without meaning to) shame. Bluestreak froze as he took in the emotions and sent back reassurance and confusion. She refused to look at him. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay. I guess we've sorta accepted we were both at fault. But what's wrong? What happe- I mean, uh." The young mech rubbed the back of his helm in embarrassment and looked towards the barn. "Sorry. Wheeljack told me to give you time and bring what happened up yourself. You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to."

Victoria looked over at the barn as well and could have kicked the engineer if she hadn't run the risk of injuring herself more than him. She was hoping he would explain instead of making her do it, but she supposed it was his effort to get them to doing exactly as he had told them to do: talk. The woman sighed and moved over to sit on the doorsteps while Bluestreak moved closer. "I think I messed up Blue."

Door-wings fluttered in obvious confusion. "Why?"

Victoria bit her lip and ran a hand through her still wet hair. How was she supposed to him that she had…had…had done _that_ to James? Bluestreak absolutely abhorred killing even as he was forced to do it because of the war. He could deal with "death" on his favorite TV shows or movies because he knew it wasn't real, but…what if he became disgusted with her after hearing what she had done? What if he refused to stay bonded with her and blocked her out for the rest of her life?

"What was it like when you killed for the first time?"

Okay, that was _definitely_ not what she had wanted to come out. Bluestreak visibly twitched and became instantly defensive. "Why?"

Victoria hugged herself and allowed shame to run rampant across the bond. No more holding back anymore; she had to accept that she had others around her that were affected by her actions or inactions. "I did a very bad thing Blue."

"Like what?"

"I think I killed a man."

Bluestreak stared down at her with hard blue optics that made her look away. "Why did you kill him?"

"Because I didn't know what else to do! He was going to hurt the sparkling, and I was stuck in a cage and couldn't do anything. So when he went upstairs, I took a screwdriver and pierced my palm. I used the blood from my hand to make it seem like I had really bad head injury because I knew that when he saw it he wouldn't hesitate to try and help. And when he did try to help, I…I used the taser Wheeljack made for me to shock him. I didn't think about it killing him because the shock might have been too strong! I was just trying to protect the sparkling."

Bluestreak twitched as shame, grief, and fear washed over him. It all came from Victoria because at the moment he didn't really feel anything, and he could understand where the shame and grief came from. But why was she so scared? "Why are you scared? Do you think he's still alive and will come after you?"

She shook her head and fought tears as her emotions began to overwhelm her. "I don't want you to be mad at me…"

Oh. _Oh!_ "No, no, no! Vicky I'm not mad; don't cry!" He swept her up in his servo without a second thought and held her close. "Please don't cry! You're the type of person that can't stop once you've started because you always keep it bottled up and it's like a bottle of coke that you shake up a lot and then unscrew the top without thinking and coke goes flying everywhere!"

Victoria sniffed and looked up at him with dark grey eyes. "Did you just compare me being emotional…to a bottle of coke?"

Bluestreak opened his mouth as if to deny it but paused. "Yes, yes I did. But it made you stop, which is good. Why would you think I'd be mad at you?"

"Because I know how much you don't like killing."

He sighed and sat back down now that the "Vicky crying" crisis had been averted. "Vicky, if I were to be mad at you for doing what you had to do in order to protect yourself and the sparkling, then I'd have to be mad at all of the other Autobots for the doing the same, and I'd have a huge self-loathing complex. I do prefer to be able to solve a problem without violence, and I don't like killing, but…I've kinda learned that sometimes it's unavoidable. Especially with the war, you develop a sense of 'kill or be killed' because you know a 'Con's not gonna let you walk away if they have you pinned down. Or you feel like you don't have choice in the matter.

"I remember feeling really overwhelmed the first time I had to kill, sort of like how you feel now. Jazz had taken me on a mock Energon run to show me how a real one would be. The path we took was supposed to be clear of enemies; Hound and Trailbreaker had gone ahead to assure that. But they weren't looking for individual Seekers who were grounded. He took us both by surprise and knocked Jazz down before he could react. I remember standing just paralyzed as this crazed Seeker clawed at Jazz's face and tried to yank him apart in any way he could.

"I didn't know what to do, so I just feel back on Prowl's training: aim and shoot. I wasn't that great of a marksman then, so I actually missed twice and shot Jazz in the shoulder once before hitting the Seeker right between his wing joints. We later found out that the Seeker had been so exposed to the elements for so long, that his armor had become brittle and didn't serve as any type of protection from a shot from an energy rifle. It went right through him and damaged his spark to the point of non-repair, but he didn't just _die_. He rolled off of Jazz and just laid on the ground, looking up at the sky, and before his he went completely offline, he looked at me and _smiled_. Not a sadistic smile like the ones I was used to seeing on a Decepticon's face or a mocking one. He was _happy_ and actually grateful to be dying.

"All of Jazz's injuries ended up being superficial, and Ratchet had insisted on doing an autopsy on the lonely Seeker and found out that he had been severely starved of Energon and both ends of his trine bond had been forcibly severed. The Seeker must have been one of the very few who refused to follow Megatron and was rewarded for that by being abandoned by the rest of his build. That Seeker had reached the end of his sanity, and he had purposely set to be killed that day.

"I'm happy you're feeling the way you are now because that tells me that you're not heartless and you don't lack empathy for other life. War has made even a good number of Autobots loose that ability. Some of the Wreckers are a perfect example along with mechs like Sunny and, to a certain extent, even _Jazz. _I hate killing, and I always will, but I understand that some cases of self-defense and the need to protect those you love make it unavoidable. I'm not about to shun you because you did what you had to do in order to get out and protect that sparkling."

Victoria stared up at him as he finished, and the mech placidly stared right back down at her with bright (but serious) blue optics. "When did you start sounding so philosophical?"

A loud guffaw erupted from the barn followed by a high-pitched version of Recall's mimicry, and Bluestreak playfully glared in that direction. "Wheeljack! I thought you were going to pretend you weren't here."

"I'm not!" the engineer yelled back as the sparklings inside the barn laughed as a result of his laughter. "This is a complete and total figment of your imagination. Ignore the mech standing inside the barn in front of you!"

Victoria chuckled as Bluestreak huffed in mock annoyance, and the woman prompted the mech to the barn. Once there, they found Wheeljack trying his hardest to make the smallest sparkling laugh, though his antics seemed to only inspire giggles from Recall. Star was off to the side of the work table studiously ignoring the distractions as he concentrated on screwing a propeller to a slim rod.

Wheeljack turned at their arrival and pointed accusingly down at the youngest sparkling. "I think she's broken. She acts like Ratchet and refuses to laugh at me." The sparkling's face scrunched up before she emitted an adorable sneeze. "D'awe. I forgive you; it was cruel of me to compare you to Ratchet. He could never be as cute as you."

"She?" Bluestreak asked while placing Victoria on the table where she walked over to join the smaller sparklings. "You mean…"

"Say hello to the first femmeling since…well, Arcee I believe. In other words, a really, really, really, really, _really_ long time."

"So you're a little girl?" Victoria gushed as she picked the sparkling up to cradle in her arms. The little femme grunted and cuddled close, optics flickering off in content but not before reaching down to grab Recall's curls as the mechling stood up and gripped the woman's loose pants for balance. "No wonder you look so precious! What are we going to name you darling?"

"Don't look at me!" Bluestreak opted out as she looked up at him for ideas. "I'm still trying to come up with the perfect name for my far-off-in-the-future sparkling."

"I'm probably not the best to look up to for ideas either," Wheeljack said when she turned to him. "I…once named one of the Dinobots 'Slag'. You can draw any conclusion you please from that…but Ratchet said I was over-energized at the time."

Victoria rolled her eyes at them and looked back down into her arms. Recall clicked up at them and reached up high to grab his little sister's hand, making her optics come back online to look down at him. The woman looked down into the stunning color those optics sported. She had only seen one mech who came close to having the same shade, which had been Mirage though his optics had been slightly lighter. The femmeling's optics reminded her of the stone from her mother's favorite necklace, the one that signified the month of her birth.

"How about Topaz?" she asked half to herself as she gently stroked the horn-nubs on the sparkling's helm. "That doesn't sound so strange for a femme, being named after a precious stone."

The Autobots exchanged a look, and Wheeljack shrugged. "I've heard worse." He reached down and gestured for the newly named Topaz to be placed in the palm of his servo before lifting her high. "You shall now be dubbed…_Topaz._ Live long and prosper, resist temptation to the best of your abilities, and cut your brother some slack. I'm starting to think he might not all be there…not that _I _have any room to say anything."

Bluestreak laughed while Victoria rolled her eyes at the display. Meanwhile, Recall was holding one hand out like Wheeljack and chirping, which just made Bluestreak laugh harder when he noticed the mechling. Star glanced up at them and rolled his optics when he saw Wheeljack's stance. Wheeljack ignored them all and reached down to wiggle a finger against Topaz's side, vocal fins flashing pleasantly when he managed to get a giggle from the sparkling. "Looks like somebody's got sensitive plating! At least I got you to laugh."

Recall was giggling beside her, and Victoria couldn't help but wonder how he would act now that he had his sister close by, and the bond between them seemed to be stronger than ever. She looked back to Wheeljack and saw him cooing down at the once more serious femmeling, who would slap his mask when he came close enough. "You know, Swoop and his brothers are really lucky to have you as their dad Wheeljack."

Victoria's innocent statement had the completely opposite effect than what she intended. Bluestreak immediately stopped laughing and looked at the engineer with worry; Wheeljack's good humor died and he handed Topaz back to Victoria before leaving the barn without another word. Bluestreak sighed and looked down at the confused human. "So…do you need to go into town and get more supplies for her? I know you bought a lot of stuff for Star and Recall, and…you're not going to let this go are you?"

Victoria just stared at him, and he sighed. "Vicky, it's just…some stuff is still really sensitive, okay? Just don't bring up the Dinobots again. Wheeljack told me to wait until you came to me to talk about what happened; now you should do the same for him."

The woman sighed and bent down so that an insistent Recall could cuddle his sister. "Fine. But I'm worried. He always clams up when the Dinobots are just vaguely referred to. You two would tell me if something's wrong, right? You haven't been keeping something important from me for _twelve years_, have you?"

"Um," Bluestreak stuttered and poked at a bundle of wires as a distraction from looking directly at her. "Sure…I mean no! We'd totally tell you about something if it directly affected you in a negative way…"

Victoria could tell he was lying—the fact that he wouldn't look at her and the angle of door-wings were a dead giveaway—but she acted as if she bought his lie. "Good. I can't wait for Swoop to finally come to earth. I was actually surprised that he didn't come the first chance he got. It would have been a lot more fun to grow up with him than _Smokescreen."_

Bluestreak hummed and almost sighed in relief when Star chose that moment to distract her with his built-from-scratch halfway completed replica of the helicopter he and Wheeljack blew up the other day. He felt horrible for keeping such a big secret from her, but he knew that Wheeljack have to tell her _sometime._

**)(**

Later that night, Bluestreak silently slipped into the barn and stared at the back of the older Autobot, who sat at his desk fiddling with an object he couldn't see. "Um, Wheeljack?"

The engineer jumped with surprise and spun halfway around to look at the Praxian. "Oh, hi Blue! Where's Vicky and the bitlets?"

"They went to bed nearly an hour ago," the younger mech said with slight worry as he moved closer. He stopped when he saw Wheeljack move slightly to keep what was on the desk hidden. "Yeah, she said that Recall would probably sleep really well with Topaz near him, but she's sleeping with them just in case. What are you working on?"

"Nothing," Wheeljack deflected a little too quickly. Bluestreak's kibble fluttered at the tension coming from the mech in front of him. "Why don't you go get some recharge too? You haven't been able to properly power down for a while."

"I could say the same for you." Bluestreak took a step closer but stopped when the engineer immediately turned to defensive. "What are you working on Wheeljack? You're always working on it when you get depressed. Vicky didn't mean to upset you; she just doesn't know because _you_ won't tell her."

"I know that!" Wheeljack snapped with fake anger. "Why can't you give an old mech a couple moments of nostalgia? I promise I'll be fine in the morning."

"That's what I'm worried about! You have these moments of intense depression and then you're suddenly happy-go-lucky the next day in front of Vicky. I know Prowl and probably Jazz gave you instructions to take care of me, but Ratchet did the same for you. He told to me to keep a close optic on your moods and not to let you out of my sight when you got depressed like this so you wouldn't hurt yourself."

"He put me on suicide watch?" Wheeljack asked incredulously before becoming angry. "That fragger! I am _not_ suicidal! Ridding the world of this handsome mech would be the definition of 'cruel and unusual punishment'."

"He was worried about you! Not as a medic but as a close friend. Percy told him how you would vanish for days and not talk about where you had been or what you were doing. He's worried that you're trying to re-create the Dimensional Bridge even after promising Optimus not to."

Wheeljack stared at him blankly, and Bluestreak twitched under the stare. "You think I'm dumb enough to try _that_ again. Contrary to popular belief, I _do_ know my limits. And the Dimensional Bridge isn't something I want to tamper with again. There's no telling what consequences have been created from our little jumps through dimensions. I'm just grateful that we didn't create a wormhole or something!"

He sighed at the lack of conviction he found on the Praxian's face. "Look, I'm not doing anything detrimental to anyone's health. It's just…recreational therapy of sorts. I'll tell Victoria about the Dinobots soon; she probably didn't buy whatever story you came up with anyway. Sorry about leaving you to deal with that by the way."

Bluestreak nodded in acceptance to the apology and pointedly parked himself in the other chair by the door. Wheeljack sighed and turned all the way around to give the mech his full attention. "Are you just going to sit there all night? Because I swear on my spark that what I said about not being suicidal is completely true."

"I just have some questions for you," Bluestreak admitted though he still stared at the engineer (creepily in Wheeljack's opinion). "Vicky told me you took care of that James guy. She's really upset about what she did, and I don't blame her…but I wanna know if she really _did_ kill the guy. Not that I would be mad at her or anything! I understand she did it to protect herself and Topaz. I just wanna know."

Wheeljack suddenly turned twitchy and started fiddling with one of his tools on the table. "Uh…well…you see…well, he didn't _look_ like he was breathing…or moving…movement and breathing are two tell-tale signs of life."

"Wheeljack," Bluestreak started as his door-wings twitched with uncontrollable annoyance. "She said you were going to take care of it. That you spent almost an hour in the house after she came out. What were you _doing_ if you weren't making sure he was actually dead?"

"…using the computer." Wheeljack reflexively threw his hands up to deflect a blow, which Bluestreak would have found funny at any other time. Being Ratchet's friend prepared a mech for the worst. "He looked _dead_, so I decided to focus on the computer and the other stuff he had, which is a good thing. There was a ton of stuff on that computer: videos, files, schematics. And most of it involved us! Well, not us _us_, but Cybertronians in general. I brought the hard drive with me to have a closer look."

He gestured to the side where a big, human sized cardboard box was located. "I also have a Decepticon head that we could totally mount on the wall like the humans-" He stopped when he saw Bluestreak's deadpanned look. "Or not. Who wants the head of their enemy on their wall anyway?"

"Wheeljack what if that guy's not dead?" Bluestreak asked worriedly as Wheeljack attempted to covertly hide the box with the dissected Decepticon hiding inside. "She should know that he might not be dead. She feels terrible for what she did and maybe it'll-"

"What? Get her hopes that the guy might still be alive? Make her worry that the guy might try hunting her down to get that sparkling back? The guy's dead Blue; there's no way he survived getting zapped by that taser. That thing's designed to bring down a Decepticon _Megatron's_ size. That's why I didn't bother checking; there was seriously no point. The guy's dead—end of story. _This stuff_, on the other hand, could prove valuable. Victoria said he worked for something call 'Sector 7,' and that might just be the group of humans that chased us and Bumblebee. This could be our chance to figuring out who they are, how much they know, how they know it…what are you staring at?"

Bluestreak's optics snapped back to the engineer, the visible lens within them "contracting" like a human pupil. "Nothing, nothing! It…uh…Vicky's having a hard time right now, so I thought maybe we could get away from here for a little vacation. We've been stuck in the middle of nowhere for the past two years, and I think it would be good to go visit someone. Like maybe Vicky's dad and her little stepbrother, or we can go visit Eric and Smokey. Yeah! Let's go do that; I'll tell Vicky the plan in the morning, okay? Well goodnight!"

Wheeljack watched in confusion as the mech hurried out of the barn like there was a pack of Scraplets on his tail. The engineer looked towards where the younger Autobot's attention had been and almost face-palmed when he realized his moving towards the box of things he had collected had exposed what he had been attempting to hide. With a static-filled sigh, he reached down to the cradle one of the little sparkless bodies he had been working on.

When he had awakened in this dimension, it hadn't taken him long to figure that Swoop might not ever appear. "This-Dimension" Wheeljack had never been inspired to create the Dinobots like he had.

He had never had the urge to spontaneously dig up old archived information about creating synthetic sparks; he had never had that chance encounter with the old professor from the Science Academy who had devoted his life to researching distant, organic planets and the strange beings that lived there; he had never walked past the lot of abandoned mech parts and had the compulsion to create a mech—no, a _group _of mechs—who resembled those amazing creatures that professor had showed him. In truth, he didn't even know if that professor _existed_ in this dimension.

It all came back to one fact: no inspiration—no Dinobots.

That hadn't kept Wheeljack from trying though. He didn't have the materials or time to create the mature bodies of the Dinobots, but he had found enough to create tiny replicas. At some point he had hoped that creating the sparkling frames would allow Swoop's spark to mysteriously find its way to them, just like their sparks had. But millenniums of that hope had finally died when he found himself in the possession of three, lifeless sparkling frames, exact replicas of half the Dinobots only less mature.

Now they served the purpose of just what he had told Bluestreak—recreational therapy. Wheeljack didn't have the precious materials and tools he needed to create a synthetic spark, and the AllSpark had already been rocketed into space before he had finished Swoop's frame. The more…_personal_ way of creating newsparks was out of the question as well because he didn't _want _to be that personal with another femme or mech. Besides, the only one he could think of being willing to try that method was Ratchet and that was just…_ew._ No, "ew" didn't even begin to describe. Having Ratchet's little spawn was just…_ugh._ Friends stayed friends for a reason.

Wheeljack sighed and ran a finger along the crest of the miniature Swoop frame he held. He knew the frames would probably never be sparked with life, but he continued to "make them better." Soften the crest on Swoop to make it look more "sparkling-like;" work out that glitch that kept Grimlock's mask from snapping back; and fixing Snarl's nasal ridge to be _just_ right. It was a sad form of therapy, but it helped him somewhat through the hard times.

He sighed again before carefully placing the frames back into his subspace. He might as well get started on decrypting that hard drive if Bluestreak really planned on taking a road trip to see Eric and Smokescreen. Wheeljack actually thought that it would do Victoria some good to see brother after what happened and to just get away from this place for a while.

He paused and tapped the chin of his blast mask in thought. "Now, I wonder how we're going to handle the sparkling business with him…oh well! We'll think of something when the times come. Some of the best plans are thought of right when you need them."

The engineer spent the rest of the night cursing James for his paranoia and all the firewalls, encryptions, and surprise Trojans the man had placed onto his hard drive. This was going to take a little longer than he had originally anticipated…

**)(**

"Let's go on a road trip!"

Victoria blinked in surprise at the sudden appearance of Bluestreak in the kitchen window. He smiled broadly as she stood blinking with a bottle held halfway to Topaz's mouth. She shook her head when Topaz impatiently reached up and yanked the bottle to her mouth. "What?"

"A road trip!" the mech repeated happily. "Come on, let's get out of here for a while! We can go see Eric, or your dad, or we could be random and just go wherever we want. We could go see the world's biggest rubber band ball!"

The woman blinked again as Topaz greedily sucked down her breakfast while Star and Recall began a mock-slap fight behind her at the table. "You want to travel halfway across the country to see a ball made of rubber bands with _three_ sparklings?"

"It's not just _any_ rubber band ball; it's the world's _biggest_ rubber band ball. And we don't have to go see it. We can just go visit Eric."

"I'll repeat myself: you want to make a long trip with three sparklings?" Victoria shook her head as her bonded-brother nodded innocently. "You have _no_ clue how terrible of an idea that is. Even to go see Eric that's—what?—a day of constant driving? Kids go crazy when they're confined to a small space for that long Blue. _I_ go crazy being confined to a small space for that long."

"We can stop halfway there and find a hotel to stay in?"

"How are we going to keep them from being seen by people? I could swaddle Topaz in a blanket and hide her like that, and Star might be able to pass off as a teenager if we dress him baggy clothes and hide his head with a hoodie or something. But what about Recall? What if he wanders off like he does here and we don't even notice?"

"…we can find a _deserted_ hotel." Bluestreak pouted as Victoria gave him a look. "Come on! I really wanna go see Smokey. It's been, like, two years I've seen him, and I miss talking to another mech who is slightly saner than Wheeljack."

As if on cue, the frame of the window they spoke through shook as a small shockwave reverberated through the house. Neither even bothered to check on the engineer, who had come out of the barn on the other side of the house with a series of curses. "See? Maybe a crowded area will keep him from ki-hurting us."

Bluestreak's kibble fluttered in anticipation when the woman only sighed and maneuvered Topaz to her shoulder, gently rubbing the sparkling's back plating. The sparkling emitted a small "burp" and her little fans kicked on to run raggedly for a moment. The mech heard the noise and said, "Maybe getting away from all this dust will help Topaz's self-repair with her fans…"

Victoria scowled up at him for using the sparkling's serious condition to his advantage. After Wheeljack's abrupt departure from the barn yesterday, he had returned a few hours later to objectively explain why the sparkling's fans made the funny noise they did. Topaz had been removed from her gestation chamber too early, leading to the underdevelopment of some of her internal systems, her fans just being one of them. "Premature" was the only way Wheeljack could explain it without confusing both Bluestreak and Victoria.

However, the sparkling's nanites—Cybertronian "antibodies" that worked to self-repair small wounds and such—were mature enough to register the problems and be able to "fix" those problems on their own over the span of a few months without the assistance of a medic. Wheeljack had listed some things they could do to "help" the nanites with the repair and keeping foreign particles, such as dust, to a minimum around the sparkling was one of them. That tended to be a little difficult when living around dirt roads that had loose dirt that could be kicked up at any time from a stray wind.

"The air pollution in San Francisco is just as harmful."

"Then we will keep her inside." Bluestreak groaned as she continued to look unimpressed. "Come on Vicky! You know you wanna see Eric. Chats through a webcam just aren't the same as in person."

Victoria finally sagged at the mention of her brother. She _did_ really miss him and talking through a webcam to either her brother or dad just wasn't the same. Her dad was currently on a trip of his own with Ariel and little one and a half year old Benjamin, so the only one she _could_ visit at this time was Eric. And she really _did_ want to see her brother…

Bluestreak grinned as he felt her resignation through the bond but waited for her to verbally give in before celebrating. It wouldn't be the first time that her emotions contradicted her decision. "_Fine._ But you're the one who's planning it. That means you need to find a hotel along the way that we can stay in, and take into consideration the breaks we'll need to take along the way, and-"

"I got it!" Bluestreak assured her as he stood up from the window. "You just go pack so we can leave as soon as possible."

"Wait a minute!" Victoria cried after him as he vanished around the corner of the house. "I thought this was going to be like a 'next weekend' kind of thing, not a 'let's get going in an hour!'" She sighed when she knew she wasn't going to get a response and turned back to the mechlings at the table, who were now angelically sitting and waiting for their breakfast Energon. "Oh, don't think I didn't hear your slap fight little misters. I'll let you off with a warning this time, but no more hitting at the table."

Recall chirped up at her innocently while Star just pointed a finger at the smaller mechling, a silent gesture that said _"He started it!"_ The woman sighed and carefully put Topaz down into Recall's stroller, which she was temporarily using as a stand-in for a baby carrier. "Well, let's get you two fed and pack for this 'spur of the moment' trip your Uncle Blue planned."

* * *

**AN: **This chapter...screwed me over so many times. I'm having writer's block, not with the ideas of the story per say, but the actual putting them down in writing ): My mind is just too busy trying to skip ahead instead of dealing with the steps it has to go through to get there. I'm working on it, though it may take a while for the next chapter to get completed, so sorry in advance.


	12. Road Trip

**AN:** And I'm back with an amazing filler!

Spark kisses are an idea created by Rose's . wings , which I used in _Pint Sized_ and am utilizing once more :3

_"Thinking"  
:Com Talk:  
_**~Bond Speech~**

* * *

A New Version of Reality

Chapter Ten

Road Trip!

**On the road again. Sing it with me, Shrek! I can't wait to get on the road again. –Donkey from **_**Shrek**_

* * *

"You know, I think we should just cancel the trip. I'm already feeling a lot better than usual!"

"You're right Wheeljack. There's just something about this situation that makes you forget all your worries-"

"Your sorrows-"

"Your grievances."

Recall decided to butt in and add his two cents to the conversation by blowing a raspberry up at the woman and mech he sat between and giggling when Victoria playfully tugged on his springs. Bluestreak looked up at them as well and pointedly glared before returning to his current problem, which happened to be glaring back up at him with defiant ruby optics. "_Star,_ I'm not going to repeat myself."

Star hissed at the sharpshooter.

"Don't get that attitude with me. I am bigger than you-"

Star blew a raspberry.

"-and I am in charge-"

The Seekerlet spun around and tauntingly wiggled his aft up at the mech, which made Wheeljack guffaw with unrestrained amusement and Victoria fight to keep the smile off of her face.

"…that's it! I'm just gonna shove you in and strap you down." Bluestreak made a sudden lunge for the sparkling, making Star emit a high-pitched screech that made them all cover their ears/audial receptors and woke Topaz from her nap. As the femmeling began to cry, Star dashed across the yard to snuggle up beside Victoria under The Sparkling Tree.

The woman patted the Seekerlet on the helm while Wheeljack took care of the crying sparkling. "Now Bluestreak, that's no way to treat a little sparkling. He's just uneasy with confined spaces."

"No, he wants to make my life a living hell!" Bluestreak protested while glaring down at the snuggling Seekerlet, who covertly and mockingly stuck his glossa out at him. "There's absolutely nothing wrong with him getting inside me while in vehicle mode!"

"Well, maybe it's just you. You two seem to have a feud going on to see who can get the most attention from me."

Bluestreak pouted as his fans kicked on in embarrassment. It wasn't so much as gaining Victoria's attention as Star being an aft about it. Bluestreak was pretty darn sure now that they had made it over that little bump in the road from the other day that his standing with Victoria was pretty safe. It wasn't _his_ fault that Star chose to believe he could take her away by making the sharpshooter lose his temper. "It's all his fault…"

Victoria sighed and leaned back against the tree. Both mechlings sitting on either side of her seemed to take that as a form of invitation and immediately laid on her, Star using her thigh as pillow and Recall snuggling up to her side. "Are you sure you want to go through with this Blue? We haven't even started the trip yet and you're already having problems."

"Yeah, Blue. You're already having sparkling troubles and the trip hasn't even started yet!"

Bluestreak glared at the older mech, who merely flashed happily back at him, before focusing back in on the problem. "I don't have a _sparkling_ problem. I have a _Star_ problem. He's been inside me before; he shouldn't have a sudden problem with it."

"He was half asleep and you had done your transforming thing and laid the seats down so it didn't seem so small then. He's going to be scrunched up in the back between Recall and eventually Topaz's car seats now, so that makes it seem even smaller. He doesn't like small spaces."

"Yeah, Blue. Star's claustrophobic. We all thought you knew that. I hope the rest of the trip is more thought out than this."

The Praxian huffed and angrily put his hands on his hip joints, making Victoria giggle for a moment at how…_girly_ it made him look. His door-wings indignantly fluttered at the snicker. "You two are enjoying this, aren't you? I try to do something _exciting_ and _enjoyable, _and you two are laughing at me! Well, you know what? Fine! I'll just go by myself."

"Aw Blue," Victoria sighed as Bluestreak transformed into his two door Nissan alt-mode to sit and silently pout. "Don't be that way. We were just teasing."

"We were? I thought we were being serious."

Wheeljack backed off at the sight of the woman's glared and went back to cooing at Topaz, who glared up at him like it was _his_ fault she woke up. Victoria gently pushed the sparklings off of her to stand up and walk over to the pouting mech, both mechlings moving to follow behind her. When they reached the grey car, Victoria patted it on the hood while sending apologetic emotions through the bond. "Come on Blue. I'm sorry about the teasing. We'll get serious about this."

The window of the car cracked open. "Promise?"

"I promise. Wheeljack will too, won't you Wheeljack?"

"I don't know. I make it a policy not to make promises I can't keep…"

"_Wheeljack._"

"Alright I'll try," the engineer said with a sigh. He then proceeded to stare seriously at the grass under him and make funny noises that sent Recall into a giggling fit. "Ngh! …nope. I cannot force myself to make a promise I know I will break less than ten minutes from now. Sorry Blue, but you will just have to suffer through it."

Bluestreak sat in his spot quietly until he reluctantly sighed. "Fine. But because of that, Star can travel with Wheeljack."

"Hold on! I'm sure we can make some arrangements-"

"Nope, you're stuck with the claustrophobic Seekerlet in your cab. It makes up for you inability to stop teasing."

Victoria put her hands on her hips and gave the Nissan the stink eye as she was flooded with immense satisfaction. "Did you just play us Bluestreak?"

"Uh…no…" The door to the backseat popped open and out flew the bag that Victoria had packed with things to entertain Star during the trip. Star snatched it up with an offended twitter. "There you go 'Jack! Have fun. I've always heard that Seekers usually get really destructive in small enclosed places. Like the cab of a truck."

"Devious, little," Wheeljack muttered as he handed the smallest sparkling down to Victoria after she had buckled Recall into the car seat already situated in the backseat of Bluestreak's alt-mode. Since they hadn't been able to go into town the previous day and Bluestreak's spur-of-the-moment trip didn't leave anytime to do so now, it had been decided that they would find an appropriate place to stop on the way and grab the extra things needed for Topaz. After all, the two siblings—no matter how sweet and close they behaved now—couldn't share Recall's things _forever_.

When his servo was free, the engineer bent down close to the ground and closer to Star's height. "That's fine, aint that right little buddy? I'll teach you all about quantum physics and kinematics. Doesn't that sound like fun?" Star chirped and buzzed enthusiastically, and Wheeljack nodded with approval. "Yes, it does. I will make a proper prodigy of you yet."

"I thought I was your prodigy," Victoria teased while taking one last quick inventory of the bags in Bluestreak's trunk. It wasn't much, but she wanted to be sure she had everything. "You're already replacing me?"

"To be honest, he's a lot better at it than you are." Wheeljack's vocal fins flashed with equal humor as he turned to check that the barn was locked up. The last thing he needed was some random person happening across their empty property and getting into the things he had to leave behind. The odds of that happening were so slim that even Prowl would dismiss them, but better safe than sorry was his motto…sometimes. Most of the time it was something along the lines of "Put out the flames closest to the volatile materials first."

The woman shifted the dozing sparkling still in her arms as Wheeljack folded down into his alt-mode, opening the door to his cab and activating his holoform to encourage the wary Seekerlet in. Star was a lot more cooperative with the engineer especially after seeing how much roomier it was in the truck than Bluestreak. The face that peeked out at her through the window still didn't look very pleased by the situation he was in, but at least he wasn't manically chewing on the leather seats or dramatically clawing at the glass of the windows like he had with Bluestreak earlier.

Recall gurgled as Victoria awkwardly scooted into the backseat beside him and reached out to grab Topaz's little pede. While the siblings fussed with each other, Victoria leaned forward in her seat to look between the front seats and at the dashboard. "This is your last chance Blue. You can still back out of this."

A "pfft!" kind of sound came from the speakers, and Bluestreak started to rev his engine before even shutting the door. "Road trips are good for the soul! 'Sides, I bet Eric will be totally thrilled when we show up."

"That implies that he doesn't know we're coming."

"Or something like that."

Victoria rolled her eyes and leaned back into the comfortable seat as Bluestreak peeled down the driveway with Wheeljack following close behind. A road trip with just her and the two Autobots might have been fun. A spur-of-the-moment road trip with one human, two Autobots, and three sparklings?

Yeah, Bluestreak had absolutely no idea what he was getting himself into.

**)(**

The first two hours of the trip were non-eventful. After the initial excitement had worn off, the gentle motions of the car had caused Recall to doze off in his seat with Topaz not far behind once Victoria had found an appropriate blanket for the femmeling to cling to in her sleep. Intermediate checks with Wheeljack revealed the engineer doing exactly as he had promised: filling Star's little processor with as much scientific information as possible. His constant scientific babble appeared to be keeping the Seekerlet calm, though it also seemed to help to have Victoria talk to him for a few minutes every half hour or so.

Victoria had just been leaning the side of her head against the interior of the car, going in and out of consciousness as Bluestreak boringly shifted through random radio stations, when Topaz woke up with a start and began to hiccup in displeasure. The displeasure must have seeped through their fledgling sibling bond because Recall woke up mere seconds later and looked around the car curiously, as if he had forgotten where exactly he had fallen asleep. Once he seemed satisfied at his surroundings, he immediately began to struggle with the straps of his car seat.

"No sweetie," Victoria said drowsily, reaching over to gently stop him. "You have to stay in your car seat."

"I don't get why he does," Bluestreak piped up, making Recall happily squeal at the sound of his voice. "They're supposed to keep babies safe while a person is driving, but I'm a much better driver than humans are, so he wouldn't get hurt without it." He heard Victoria hum sarcastically. "I am a good driver!"

"You know, I distinctly remember Sideswipe bragging about the same thing during our time in the cabin. I also remember watching him run into the same wall a dozen times a day. And that was just on a good day_."_

"Yeah, well…Sideswipe has a big mouth."

Unable to deny that truth, Victoria began to search through the bag at her feet. "It isn't _your_ driving I'm worried about. Like you said, you're a better driver than most humans, but it's usually the other person that causes the wreck, which I guess in a roundabout means we all suck at driving at one point in our lives. Blue where's the bag with the bottles?"

"Wheeljack had it," the mech answered before going silent. Topaz whimpered and chewed on her blanket for comfort. Recall reached over and awkwardly rubbed the femmeling's horn nubs with soft whistles, mimicking how he had seen both Wheeljack and Victoria comfort the smallest sparkling.

Recall was screaming by the time Bluestreak finished communicating with Wheeljack, and Victoria was just staring down at Topaz noisily sucking on her brother's fingers. "Wheeljack says he has it with him and that we should probably find a place to stop before we get on the interstate so that we can get Topaz's things, and he can give us the bag then, and why on earth are you letting her chew on Recall?"

"It doesn't hurt him," the brunette defended as she shifted a little in her seat. "She only has whatever the equivalent to human gums is. And it's either that or her screaming because she doesn't have anything but a blanket to chew on, and she's hungry. I don't know about you, but I find her screaming to be a little more high-pitched and earsplitting than Recall's."

"But-" Bluestreak stopped to check on Recall, who appeared to be just screaming to scream now that the shock of having his fingers "eaten" had worn off. "Fine. My navigation systems-"

"Google Maps?

"-say there's a town ten minutes away, and it should have a store like Wal-Mart or something."

"I prefer Target. Does Google Maps show a Target nearby?"

"I am the navigator of this trip, and I say we go to the closest one. And no! My systems are far more superior to Google Maps. You insult me."

Victoria's lips twitched in a smile at Bluestreak's playfully offended tone. "Aye aye captain."

Bluestreak slightly weaved, showing off his mirth, before speeding up a bit when Topaz spat out her brother's fingers and began to cry. Wheeljack sped up to match their speed, and they were soon pulling into the back of the parking lot for a shopping center. Victoria didn't waste any time crawling out of the backseat with the crying sparkling and met Wheeljack's holoform halfway with the bag. "How did that get stuck with you?"

"Because I was supposed to give it to Bluestreak, but I got distracted and just put it in my subspace. At least my subspace is connected to the toolbox in the truck bed because if it wasn't…well, we wouldn't have seen it again until I was able to transform back into my root mode. It would have been a _long_ trip in that scenario."

Victoria nodded as she dug out a pre-made Energon bottle and stuck the nipple into the crying femmeling's mouth. Topaz stared up at her with the watery optics that inspired her name before greedily sucking down the diluted liquid. Once the crying crisis had been averted, the woman glanced behind her at the store. "Alright, Wheeljack you're coming in with me."

"Why? You've got a credit card and know what we need."

"Because I'm an introverted person and don't want to talk to the person behind the cash register. Besides I've learned that with you or Bluestreak at my side, we get 'exclusive' deals, especially if the cashier is a girl or a gay guy…or a very old woman, which only seems to work with you anyway. You have the 'catch all' holoform."

"So you're basically just taking me in to use me for my good looks."

"Yes."

"Okay!" Wheeljack enthusiastically agreed before remembering the three sparklings. "What are we gonna do about the bitlets?"

"Hey! Just because my generator still isn't working doesn't mean I'm completely useless out in public," Bluestreak complained through his cracked window. Recall happily waved to the two adults when they turned to the mech-in-disguise. "I can watch Recall and Topaz while you guys go in. But I refuse to let Star inside if he starts to try and eat me again."

"Which makes this an excellent time to use my latest—ingenious—invention," Wheeljack bragged, spinning dramatically to dig in his toolbox. After searching for a minute or two, muttering unintelligible things to himself, and causing Bluestreak to re-park one space away from him after pulling out a dubious, half-completed contraption, the engineer finally found what he was looking for: a seemingly innocent looking watch. "Ah ha!"

"'Ah ha' what?" Victoria asked suspiciously, jiggling Topaz in her arms in an attempt to get her to fall back asleep. "Is it going to explode?"

"No, this is prototype number fifteen, so it's pretty safe now. Anyway! I was inspired to create it after seeing how big Star was. It's funny to think that most of the children of our species are more or less the exact height of an average human adult. There are of course exceptions as Recall and Topaz show us."

The door to Wheeljack's real form swung open, revealing a surprised Star crouched down in the floorboard and using the seat as a table to draw on. Wheeljack gestured for the Seekerlet to hop out, and he did so after a cautious look around. The engineer carefully snapped the watch onto Star's thin wrist and fiddled with the dial on the side. Victoria jumped when Star was suddenly replaced by a wide eyed teenager.

Wheeljack stepped back and looked proudly at his work while Star hissed and swatted at the shirt he now appeared to be wearing. "It's like a dumb-downed version of the holo-generators, which I guess basically makes it a holo_gram_ instead of a holo_form._ The photons used to create the image don't exactly come together in the same way as holoforms, so foreign objects can interfere with the signal from the watch if they collide with certain areas like here, here and here." He reached out to poke Star in the stomach, the cheek, and the area around the knee, and the image flickered every time until he removed his hand from that area. "Also, as you can probably tell, it doesn't necessarily hide the physical features of Star, which is why he looks a little broader in the shoulders than the average human, bowlegged, and has the huge backpack that I programed to hide his growing wings."

"And here I thought we'd have to actually dress him up in baggy clothes," Victoria said with open awe while Star spun around in an attempt to grab the "backpack." "What would we do without you and your ingenuity Wheeljack?"

"Life for you would be horribly boring and simple," he answered as he reached out to stop the spinning Seekerlet. "If he stays with us, keeps his 'talking' to a minimum, and doesn't bump into anything, he'll be completely disguised to walk around with us. So put the sleeping bitlet in Bluestreak and we'll get this shopping done and be back on the road lickety-split!"

The woman shook her head at his over exaggerated enthusiasm and carefully placed the now sleeping femmeling on Bluestreak's flattened seat. Recall twittered in confusion when Victoria didn't climb in as well and clung to her shirt when she leaned over to place a reassuring kiss between his bright optics. "You stay out here with Blue and sister and be a good boy, okay? I'll be right back."

The sparkling made a humorous attempt to growl like Star when Victoria untangled his spindly fingers, and she could barely see him forlornly staring out the window after Bluestreak had safely locked him in. She took the arm that Wheeljack offered (like the gentleman he was) and cautiously grabbed the hand of the curious Seekerlet surveying his surroundings. The hologram held firm even as the slight static produced by it tingled her hand, and she marveled at the feel of the Seekerlet's metallic servo that blatantly contradicted the human hand she appeared to be holding.

Even as she was (once again) awed by Wheeljack's technology, the young woman couldn't help but twitch at the approving stares the Seekerlet received once they entered the crowded store. It served to remind her that though she _knew_ it was Star—the baby Seekerlet that she had discovered little over a week ago—to strangers (specifically strangers of the _female _persuasion) he looked like a moody seventeen year old, with perfectly pale skin, dark wispy hair, and brilliant red tinted brown eyes.

Victoria elbowed Wheeljack before he had a chance to grab a shopping cart. "Why did you have to program the hologram to look so…hot?"

The engineer laughed at how it appeared to physically pain the woman to call the Seekerlet "hot." "Because good looks run in the family! You don't want Star to feel left out do you?"

Victoria rolled her eyes at the explanation and pulled Star a little closer as a gaggle of girls passed them into the store. He released a low buzz and snuggled into her side, though Wheeljack had to pull him away before accidently messing with the hologram.

"Let's get this over with," Victoria said and pushed the wobbly buggy into the depths of the store, Wheeljack and Star obediently following her.

**)(**

There was a way to evaluate a situation before actually becoming a part of it. For instance, Victoria usually decided whether or not to check on Wheeljack by the amount of smoke that came out of his "workshop." More smoke meant to stay the hell away; minimum smoke meant it might be safe but don't actually go all the way in. No smoke meant get Bluestreak to check on the engineer because there might be some invisible toxin in the air.

The muffled screaming behind the dark tinted windows made half of her want run the rest of the way to make things better and the other half to turn around and return to the store.

"Did you find a dying cat while we were gone?" Wheeljack asked teasingly while riding the buggy the rest of the way to their parked forms. He stumbled as Star tackled him from behind.

Bluestreak's door swung open, setting off an almost "tidal wave" of screaming that had people on the other side of the parking lot looking their way. It threw her off to see Topaz peacefully sleeping where she had been laid.

"Vicky, _help,"_ Bluestreak said so pathetically that not even Wheeljack could continue his teasing. "He's been screaming the whole time you were gone."

The brunette stuck her head through the door and looked into the backseat. Recall was clutching at the seatbelts that crossed his chest, optics flickering as he screamed as loud as he could. He stopped and drew in a deep breath, preparing for the next scream, when he spotted Victoria. He released the air he had collected and smiled angelically, whistling happily and reaching out to grab her.

"Hello sweetie," Victoria cooed as she reached over to grab one of his eager hands. The sparkling clicked and cooed back. "Have you been giving Blue a hard time? Now why would you do that?"

"Because Star's corrupting him," Bluestreak answered moodily as Wheeljack poked him in the side and demanded entrance on the opposite side so that the new car seat could be installed for Topaz. "I'm not even exaggerating when I say that he's been screaming the whole time. As soon as you guys went into the store he started. I tried playing music, talking, heck I even drove around the parking lot like twenty times. I think he stopped breathing for ten minutes just to scream!"

"He just didn't understand that I was coming back," Victoria dismissed easily as she leaned forward to give Recall an Eskimo kiss. He gurgled and gripped her head to give her a sloppy kiss, which pretty much meant opening his mouth as wide as he could and nearly devouring her left cheek. "You won't give Blue such a hard time next time, will you? No you won't. Because you're a good boy—yes you are!"

"Why do femmes sound so weird talking to sparklings?" Wheeljack asked offhandedly as he attempted to stealthily transfer the sleeping femmeling into her new carrier. He froze, one hand halfway under her helm and the other halfway under her behind, as she shifted in her sleep.

"You're one to talk," Victoria shot back, her voice returning to its normal pitch as she dug out a bottle for Recall snack on. "You talk to them like that way too unless you're having a scientific 'conversation' with Star."

"I do not," he denied before pausing, sparkling dangling in the air halfway to her car seat. "Do I?"

"Yes," was the answer he received from both Bluestreak and Victoria before he shrugged and completed the successful transfer. Bluestreak's seat folded back up when the scientist retreated and his engine purred to a start with an eagerness to get back on the road. Victoria slipped into the passenger seat after storing the bags with Topaz's new things in the mech's trunk and ensuring that Star returned to the crammed space of Wheeljack's cab without complaint.

Bluestreak peeled out of the parking lot the first chance he got, and Wheeljack wasn't far behind as they merged into the rest of the traffic getting on the interstate. Victoria pulled out a box from one of the bags she had kept with and went about ripping the annoying tape that was supposed to help keep the product from being stolen. Bluestreak remained silent until she was finally able to open the box before his curiosity finally got the best of him. "What's that?"

"This will become your best friend six hours into this trip," the woman answered as she placed the bulky black device on her lap and moving on to the next thing in the bag. "Recall isn't going to sleep the whole way like Topaz might, so this will keep him properly entertained. Do you have a place I can plug this adaptor into?"

Bluestreak made a snorting sound and removed the cap that normally covered the electrical socket at the bottom of the center console. "You know, you're _really_ lucky that you're riding with me and not Wheeljack when you asked that."

"Trust me as soon as it came out of my mouth, I fully realized that." Victoria connected the car adaptor to her device and turned it on. She waited a moment for it fully power up and pulled out the last three cases in the bag. She grinned as she shifted through them. "So, do you want to listen to _Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, _or_ Cars _first?"

"_Nemo_!" Bluestreak shouted with excitement, and the brunette smiled at his eagerness. Bluestreak was a total Pixar "buff," watching every movie that came out enough times to completely memorize the entire film from start to finish and then in reverse order (without downloading it straight to his memory) while eagerly awaiting the other movies he knew would eventually be released. Before the sparkling drama began, he had been attached to _Finding Nemo_ and it looked like the little orange fish was still his current favorite.

Recall chirped in curiosity when the portable DVD player was strategically placed on the center console and squealed happily as the first animated fish appeared. After that he was completely sucked into the movie, and the rearview mirror showed him staring at the small screen with childlike wonder.

"Awe," Bluestreak commented sadly a few minutes into the movie, Recall subconsciously mimicking the mech even as he chirped and clapped excitedly for the new fishes that came on the screen. "Nemo's mommy died."

"You've seen this movie nearly a thousand times. You knew that was going to happen."

"I know, but it doesn't change how sad it is!"

Victoria shook her head and watched Wheeljack weave in and out of the lanes behind and, eventually, in front of them. Bluestreak was such a sweet spark; he really did mean well by this trip, and despite the hard time both she and Wheeljack gave him at the beginning, she was a little glad that he persistently pushed for it. It was nice to get away from home for a while—be reminded that the world was bigger than their little area of isolation. And seeing her brother face to face after nearly a year of just phone calls and webcam chats would do her some good.

Blue knew what he was doing even if he naively believed it would be a simple thing to accomplish.

Victoria closed her eyes and tuned out the sounds from the movie and Bluestreak saying the lines seconds before the characters did with Recall buzzing in an attempt to copy him. The short time leading up the road trip was more exciting than the actual road trip because the options of things to do _during_ the trip were so limited.

Sleeping was an option, but after the first two hours of on and off dozing had left her wide awake. As much as she liked the animated movies she had bought, she wasn't very interested in watching them even to pass the time. Reading was out of the question since it made her queasy while riding in a car, and the chances of getting a strong signal while traveling down the interstate were too low to warrant finding the bag she had stashed her computer in. So her limited options left her with only one choice: sit and do nothing.

Needless to say, that got really boring really fast.

A sudden mirth filled her, and Victoria tuned back in just in time to hear Bluestreak giddily sing along with the movie. "Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming. What do we do? We swim, swim!"

She smiled at Recall's elated laughter, and Bluestreak repeated the little song even as the movie pushed forward. The amusement that nearly overwhelmed her was a completely unconscious act on Bluestreak's part. When he wasn't concentrating on keeping his side of the bond closed (which he rarely did anyway), it was a natural occurrence for strong emotions travel to other ends of the bond and be accepted or rejected by others.

The recent problems induced by that same concept made Victoria think of the other, less active bonds she had. "Hey Blue, do you think Prowl can feel you from where he is?"

Bluestreak paused in his singing, making Recall click in disappointment, and hummed in thought. "I don't know. Physical distance can 'stretch' a bond too thin and prevent communication, plus it's been a while since me and Prowl renewed the guardian-charge bond because you're not necessarily meant to have that bond, or at least a strong one, forever. Just until you're old enough to take care of yourself or your guardian has nothing else to teach you. Maybe if it's a strong enough emotion he can feel it, but I haven't been able to talk to him through the bond for a while even before coming to earth."

She nodded and stared out of the window at the passing scenery for a moment before speaking. "You know ever since I found you guys and understood what the bond thing was I've never attempted to reach out to Sideswipe and Sunstreaker. Consciously I mean, like I do with you. And no matter how hard I try, I can't 'talk' with you guys. I can hear you sometimes, usually when Sunstreaker gets mad at something, but I can't talk back. Why do you think that is?"

"'Cause you're human," Bluestreak said blatantly and he weaved slightly in lieu of a shrug. "'Talking' through a bond is one of the few things that our scientists believe they may have come close to understanding, or at least the bare mechanics of it. Sparklings can't talk to their creators unless it's through emotions, but a youngling can. A lot of them theorized that that was because with a youngling upgrade comes their first communication system, and other than that and sturdier frames that's the only difference between a sparkling frame and youngling frame. They took mechs without comm. links who were bonded and tested out their theory and found that most of those mechs couldn't talk to their partners through the bonds either."

Victoria blinked at the new information and sat silently digesting it before glaring at the empty driver's seat. "If you knew that, then why didn't you say anything when we were trying to send each spoken thoughts and crap? No wonder Wheeljack laughed at us! We probably looked like total idiots staring at each for hours and asking each other if we knew what the other was thinking."

"Because it's one of those useless studies that Prowl gave me a datapad about to read when I was bored and I didn't access that memory file until a moment ago. Besides, if I remember correctly most of the studies were inconclusive or corrupted by outside factors that the theory remains open to any interpretation. Some say that sparklings are just too young to fully understand language until they hit the time of their first upgrades; others say that mechs and femmes that lack a comm. link array tend to have other physical problems as well; and still others say that there's nothing physical about it. And then there are the odd cases of split-spark twins who say they're able to talk to each other from the moment they're sparked. The true causes might be unique to the individual, and I'm sure you being human is the major factor preventing you from being able to talk back, but since you _can _actually hear us, then maybe that means one day you'll be able to talk back."

"That just sounded like something that should have come from Wheeljack."

"Hey! I'm smart too…just not _as_ smart. Now if you would excuse me, Nemo is about to be inducted into the fish tank club by crossing the fiery blaze of Mt. Wannahockaloogie and be given the name Shark Bait."

Victoria couldn't resist giggling at the dramatic change from serious to childlike demeanor. Blue had his moments of reminding her that he was _far_ older than she was despite the reverse roles they often took. "One more question Mr. Smarty Pants. Do you think actively prodding the bonds will make them stronger even if they're far away?"

"Of course!" Bluestreak answered enthusiastically. "Any time you manipulate a bond, it becomes stronger no matter where you are or how stretched it might be. It's how bonded couples cope with being separated for long periods of time. Leaving it alone just makes it go 'dormant' until it's reopened again, so a bond can never really disappear unless it's been completely severed."

"So if I constantly poked Sunstreaker, the bond would get stronger?"

"Yeah, it'll become stronger, but you run the risk of making him completely block you, which I guess would also make the bond stronger because it's still being manipulated in some way. Why so many questions?"

"I'm bored and figured that after the other day I should learn more about it," Victoria answered simply as she closed her eyes and concentrated inward. "Now shh. I'm going to start poking Sunstreaker now and make our bond unbreakable."

Bluestreak snickered but left her alone like she asked. Victoria attempted to let her mind go blank and concentrate on the abstract concept of her bonds. It hadn't been easy for her to learn how to find a way to tell the bonds apart, and for the longest time whatever got sent to Bluestreak would be sent to everyone else connected, and the only way she knew a bond was blocked or too weak was by the lack of reaction she received. It was only in the past year that Wheeljack had described a way for her to actually "picture" the bonds, which had ironically come from a passing comment made by Smokescreen. She had never stopped to actually try the method, but she supposed with the time she had on her hands now would be the perfect time to try.

First she had to focus on them, which was a lot harder than it sounded. She had to separate what was _her_ and focus on what was _not_ her. Since Bluestreak's bond _was_ the strongest, it was easy to find him, but she wasn't necessarily interested in him at the moment. So instead of just following the emotions back to the source, she had to figure out a way to separate her humor from what was affecting her from Bluestreak. Once she felt she had it vaguely separated, she began the next step: visualize.

The easiest way she could picture the bonds was as sort of doorways to the others. Bluestreak's door was a light gray that was open nearly all the time and exuded a type of familiarity, which made it the easiest one to find even without mentally putting a picture to it; Sideswipe's was halfway open, unable to open fully because of distance but still strong enough for her to feel when he was actively messing with their bond; and Sunstreaker's was slightly ajar and the gold hue that both the twin's doors exhibited lacked the red highlights that characterized Sideswipe's.

For now Victoria ignored Bluestreak's door and the last mystery one which led to the forever blocked bond and attempted to focus solely on Sunstreaker. Unfortunately her lack of experience with this type of concentration allowed her currently mischievous emotions to bleed over to the other bonds, inspiring a burst of humor from Bluestreak and weak curiosity from Sideswipe. They were ignored as she visualized a hand reaching out to poke Sunstreaker's golden door…again…and again…and again.

At first there was only mild annoyance as the bond shuddered from the intrusion, but as Victoria determinedly and single-mindedly poked at it, the crack in the door slowly widened until the mild annoyance grew into…well, more annoyance. It was probably the most Victoria had ever felt from Sunstreaker.

At some point Sideswipe must have caught on to what she was doing and decided to start "poking" at his brother too because the annoyance from Sunstreaker suddenly doubled with tints of anger weaved into it, though not completely aimed towards her. She wasn't sure if it was her imagination providing the voice or an actual thought from Sunstreaker but it sounded like he yelled **~Leave me alone!~ **before firmly slamming his end of the bond shut.

"_How rude," _she couldn't help but think. However it was short lived as she turned her focus to Sideswipe. He seemed absolutely excited to have her actively reaching out to him instead of him just reaching out to her. She felt a little upset at the realization of how much she really neglected the Twins, but the red front-liner didn't seem to mind as he weaved playful (but still weak) emotions around her.

They began a "poking battle," each attempting to make their pokes stronger than the last. Bluestreak was highly amused by their actions and let her know that before retreating to leave them alone. Sunstreaker found it stupid and opened his end of the bond for a second to let them know that before blocking everything out. A sudden image of the golden mech slouched down in a chair and exaggeratingly pouting came to mind, and Victoria couldn't contain the humor that it created.

Why had she never tried this before? If she had been more proactive with her bonds, the ones between her and the Twins might be almost as strong as the one she shared with Bluestreak. Of course it wouldn't be _as_ strong because distance really was the major factor that kept them feeling each other without concentrating this deeply, but it also wouldn't be so weak. She should have taken the initiative like Sideswipe and at least _tried._

Eventually Sideswipe had to retreat to his side in order to accomplish whatever duties he was currently assigned to. As he closed off his end of the bond and Sunstreaker pointedly reinforced his own block, Victoria was suddenly nostalgic…and at a complete loss of how to break the deep meditative state she had inadvertently put herself in. Was she supposed to imagine herself waking up? Say a magic word? Click her heels together three times and repeat the phrase "There's no place like home"?

And that was when the young woman's attention wandered around to the blocked bond. The door that represented it was pitch black except for the dark purple accents that almost blended into the base color. It barely moved when she poked it, indicating the strength it had built up over the years, and unlike with Sunstreaker it didn't give in to continuous poking. It was just there doing pretty much nothing but still taking up space.

Victoria messed around with it for a while before backing off. If whoever was at the other end of the bond didn't want anything to do with her, then so be it. She wasn't about to force a response from them.

Except…there was _still_ something that had caught her attention. Like a kind of faint loneliness that didn't come directly from the blocked bond but something connected to it perhaps? Bluestreak had explained to her once that sometimes indirect bonds could be created by bonding to another. For instance, she was indirectly bonded to Prowl through Bluestreak even though she never felt him at all because it was so weak.

But how was she to get access to that bond? Could she even do it while the main one connecting her was blocked? Or better yet, was creeping into an indirect bond a type of taboo in Cybertronian society?

The loneliness seemed to intensify the longer and longer she lingered around the unresponsive bond until she finally gave in and pushed towards that feeling. In a way it was like bypassing the blocked bond and ending up at a kind of fork in the road. Both of the doors that she was given as options were smaller than the ones she pictured with the main bonds. One was a solid blue and what she considered being neutral or not exuding any type of emotion or presence. The other was the most colorful door she had seen. Bright blue, stark white, and intense red all swirled together to make a glaringly attractive mixture.

This was the tiny door that had caught her attention with its faint feelings of loneliness, sadness, and barely a hint of instinctual need. Victoria was at a lost for what to do. She had just figured out a way to properly access some of her main bonds; what was she about to do with an indirect one? But she couldn't just _leave_ it! Obviously something was wrong for it to reach out past the other bonds it was connected to and find her.

So she did the only thing she could think of: she poked it.

That was probably the worst thing she could have done. The bond automatically responded and suddenly she was being engulfed by this new foreign presence. Happiness, giddiness, acceptance, a sense of _finally!_: it all washed over her in a confusing rush that sent her to the brink of nausea. This must have been how the others felt when they had to deal with her emotions. Now she fully understood why Bluestreak had snapped at her especially since what she had been feeding him was like a crockpot of moodiness.

And then she was waking up to being flung forward in a seatbelt that forced her back against the seat at the same time. Victoria blinked at the dim light the surprisingly low sun gave off and attempted to focus on the white truck that suddenly braked and then swerved in front of them. "Wha's goin' on? Wha's wrong with Wheeljack?"

"I don't know," Bluestreak answered with equal confusion as the engineer swerved off the interstate and onto a ramp for a mostly deserted rest stop. "We were just talking about finding a place to stop for the night since you were asleep and both Topaz and Star were getting a little antsy, but he just cut off mid-sentence and started swerving like a lunatic, and I almost ran into him because he suddenly braked right in front of me!"

Victoria looked into the backseat while Bluestreak parked two spaces away from Wheeljack and noticed Topaz looking at her innocently over the rim of the car seat and how Recall peacefully doze beside her, completely unfazed by the temporarily jerky movements of Bluestreak. She rubbed her eyes with the heel of her hand and sluggishly undid the seatbelt. "How long was I…out?"

"For a while," the mech confessed. "I think you completely fell asleep about an hour into poking Sunny, and you fooled around a pretty long time with Sides. I'm actually _really_ surprised by what you managed to do. How did you do it?"

"I'll tell you later," Victoria promised and opened the door to get out. "Let me check on Wheeljack first, okay?"

Bluestreak gave an affirmative and shut the door to keep the cool air of the evening from affecting the sparklings inside. The brunette took a moment to stretch her cramped muscles before hurrying over to Wheeljack, who was occasionally rocking on his wheels in agitation. At her approach, the door to the Autobot's cab suddenly flew open and she had an armful of purring Seekerlet before her body had a time to respond.

She grunted and tilted backwards from the impact but managed to stay standing as the Seekerlet happily purred into her neck. Her initial confusion was overridden by the same happiness she had felt from the bond indirectly connected to her, and though it was almost as faint as Sunstreaker, it still left her dumbfounded.

"Get in," Wheeljack ordered over Star's excited purring. "You're riding with me until we find a place to stop for the night."

Victoria nodded and climbed in without complaint, dragging the reluctant Seekerlet behind her. There were times when Wheeljack got this tone of voice that a person just didn't argue with; this was one of those times. Star didn't seem to mind the woman being forced to ride with them as he stretched out on the seat, semi-sharp talons clinking against the door as he snuggled his helm into her lap.

"What was that all about?" Wheeljack demanded after they had merged back onto the interstate. "One minute the bitlet's doodling in his sketch book then the next he's hopping around and screaming at the highest volume of his vocalizer like a mindless Insecticon! I had to restrain him with seatbelts or risk having my interior shredded. Then as soon as we stop and he sees you he turns into a puddle of Energon and gets all cutesy and snuggly. What did you do?"

"Nothing!" was her reflexive denial before fidgeting nervously in her seat. "Alright, I might have done something, but it was completely accidental."

"Oh do tell."

"Well…you know how I'm bonded to Blue and the Twins?" She waited for an affirmative before continuing. "I sort of never told you guys about a fourth connection…"

"Why not?" Wheeljack asked stiffly.

"Because it's never done anything! Whoever's behind it just has this huge block up. It didn't even respond to me earlier when I was poking everyone."

"'Poking everyone'?"

"Long story short, I used that method you told me about that Smokescreen told _you_ about. I can't believe it actually worked so well. But I was experimenting with the blocked bond when I felt another behind it. So I went to investigate and found two more bonds."

"_Vicky,"_ Wheeljack said in a dramatically scandalous voice but not in a way that signaled he was joking. "You don't dig past a direct bond to the indirect ones, especially when that first bond is pointedly blocking you. Not only is it just plain rude, it's…it's invasive on so many levels. Not only are you basically slapping your own bonded in the face by pointedly ignoring their wishes, but you're invading the privacy of the others involved."

Victoria shrank into the seat with every word that came from the Autobot, and Star hissed at the radio when he realized what was making his guardian upset. "I…I kind of worried that it might be like that. But you don't understand! The others were just ignoring him, and he was sad and lonely, and I couldn't just let him stay like that. He was actually reaching out to others; what would have happened if he eventually retreated into himself and stopped reaching out? I just…didn't want him to feel so alone. And that was before I even knew it was Star!"

Wheeljack was silent, and Victoria turned her attention to the Seekerlet in her lap and reached down to pet Star on the helm, making his purrs deepen. She had never seen the Seekerlet so…_content_. Even as he pretty much forced himself to the forefront of her bond, growing stronger and stronger by the second, she couldn't bring herself to be too upset with him. If he kept this up his connection would be as strong Bluestreak's, which was surprising since he wasn't even directly connected to her. And while there were still tinges of loneliness that only the ones directly bonded to him could take away, it wasn't nearly as pronounced as it had been before.

"You have absolutely no idea who that fourth bond belongs to?" Wheeljack insisted. Victoria shook her head, and he seemed to sigh with relief. "But Star's connected to him so it may be safe to say that that might be his trine mates…oh well. If he won't respond to you just leave him alone. I can't tell you to do the same for Star because it would probably have very negative effects on him now. Just keep it on the down low for now: don't tell Bluestreak yet…or try to access that bond again. The last thing we need is to be inadvertently tracked down through it…and I'm not really in the mood to deal with a crazy Seeker."

Victoria stared at the dashboard suspiciously while scratching her nails between Star's wing nubs, making the Seekerlet absolutely die of pleasure. "Do you know who it is?"

"I'm not willing to make a definite hypothesis without more facts," the engineer deflected. "Bluestreak just told me that he found a motel off the next exit for us to stay the night. Apparently the person he talked to happily informed him how deserted their motel was, so getting the sparklings in and out without being seen will be fairly easy."

The human hummed in acknowledgement before relaxing back into the seat and watching the other cars pass them outside. Maybe when they were on their way back home she'd bug him enough to spill the secrets he was pointedly keeping from her.

**)(**

Recall onlined with a buzz and looked around the dark room in confusion. His optics cycled off and on as he sat up and rubbed at his face sleepily. Where was he? The last he remembered, he was watching the movie with funny cars that had big eyes and buck teeth. Blue had made it funnier by mimicking them—just like how he did!—and it must have been him who finally lulled the sparkling to sleep with the combination of his voice and soothing driving.

The mechling chirped and poked at the fine mesh that separated him from the outside world and mashed his face into, snagging on it in a couple of places with his springs. What was this foul contraption that kept him locked up? He wanted to get out and explore this place! Because it was obvious that it wasn't home. It had a funny smell to it, and at home he always slept in the bed with Starry. The bed in front of him looked barely big enough to just fit his Seekerlet brother!

A sudden hunger filled him, and he looked around his enclosure before buzzing with happiness when he saw twin yellow-orange optics staring in his direction. He crawled over the pillow and blankets he had been sleeping on and dropped down to chirp quietly to Sissy. Recall had hated feeling her hunger pains during the night and how lonely and scary the place she was in was. He hadn't been able to do anything but cry because it made him hungry, and lonely, and scared too.

Now all he wanted to do was do was take care of his Sissy, just like a good boy that would make mommy give him more kisses. That was the term Blue had started using to refer to the nice lady when talking to him. Recall had thought of using the same name that Starry used (Vivi, or something like that), but anytime he clicked "mommy" at her, she gave him more kisses and hugs.

Sissy whimpered and used her tiny hands to clench at the soft blankets as another wave of hunger washed over him. Well, if Sissy was hunger, then Recall would just feed her! Wouldn't that make mommy so proud? All he had to do was find the cold box that made the yummy drink for bitlets like him…after he figured out how to get out of here of course.

Topaz watched with bright golden eyes as Recall began to collect the pillow and blankets not being used and specifically piled them all in one corner. Except for the new, silky pink blanket, which he used to carefully cover his sister in case she got too cold. The younger sparkling sucked on her fist as she watched her brother's daring ascent out of the playpen, making little holes in the mesh to wheedle his fingers and little feet into.

Recall made it to the top and precariously leaned over as he attempted to figure out his next move when his oversized head chose to make it for him. He flipped over and emitted a surprise squeak as he fell through the air. Fortunately, he happened to land on the two bags beside the playpen, so it didn't hurt nearly as much. He did have the air knocked out of him, which made him whine softly and for Topaz to lift her head and make sure he was alright.

But he was a mechling on a mission, and a little bit of pain wasn't about to slow him down! He clicked back at Topaz to assure her that he was okay and began to crawl around his new environment. It wasn't nearly as exciting as home because everything he opened was completely empty, the ground smelled horrible, and there wasn't even a way for him to crawl under the bed! He sat down in a huff and looked around, his bright optic illuminating the darkness around him.

It was his very optics that led him to his next quarry as they reflected off the surface of a squat box not far from the playpen. He buzzed in curiosity as he looked for a way to open it before finding an indention on the side. He pulled on it experimentally and trilled when it flung open easily. A comical shake traveled down his body as he mimicked the normal response Victoria exhibited when the cold air of the refrigerator washed over her.

And voila! Magical bottles of pre-made Energon were now within his grasp. The mechling clicked to himself as he moved the bottles and sippy cups around until he found some new pink bottles with colorful designs on them. His bottles were blue and had funny characters on them; Starry was the only one who drank out of sippy cups; so the logical choice for Sissy would be the pretty pink bottles that were almost as pretty as her!

Recall whistled as he stood up to teeter back to the wall of the playpen. By now Topaz had managed to get herself tangled in her blanket and her little fans were beginning to get loud. The mechling purred in an attempt to calm her down, somehow knowing instinctively that the sound his sister was making wasn't normal. The purring caught her attention, and she chirped at the familiar sight of a bottle.

The sparkling on the outside of the playpen moved to stand on the bags he had fallen on earlier and carefully threw the bottle over the rim. Topaz grunted and wiggled a little in order to reach the bottle, but soon the hunger he felt was replaced with immense satisfaction as the femmeling curled up around the bottle.

Mission completion! Recall felt extremely proud of himself as his Sissy began to drift back into recharge with a full tank. But he wasn't ready to return to the playpen. There was still a lot of things to explore in this new place and he had to find his mommy and Starry, plus Jack-Jack and Blue. They couldn't be too far away…maybe behind that door!

Recall chirped and clicked as he crawled across the floor to reach the door on the other side, and while perilously balancing on the tips of his pedes, he pulled the simple door handle down and did a little dance backwards before falling on his rump. He clapped at his accomplishment and crawled through the opening before the door could silently click shut.

Outside of the room was surprisingly quiet, though the sparkling's sensitive audial receptors could pick up the sounds of the few cars that traveled down the interstate not far from them and the near silent hum of machinery around the building. Some stars twinkled in the sky above his head, but most of them were already disappearing as the bright sun began its ascent over the horizon. He clicked curiously and crawled forward to peek past the bars in front of him and down at the ground where he found his Jack-Jack and Blue.

Little Jack-Jack was digging around car Blue's insides and swinging a wrench around like he was telling Blue he did something bad. Recall twittered silently at Blue getting in trouble. He hoped it wasn't too bad, like timeout or no cartoons.

Oh well! He found Blue and Jack-Jack; now to find mommy and Starry. Recall crawled along the walkway to the set of stairs and carefully crawled backwards down them. They couldn't be too far away. He'd find them in no time!

**)(**

An hour late, a frantic Victoria was slamming open the door to their motel room and leaning over the edge of the railing to look down at the two Autobots below. "Wheeljack!"

Bluestreak released a long of honk of pain as the engineer accidently twisted a bolt too tight in his surprise, and Wheeljack himself yelped as his jump in surprise made him hit his head on the Praxian's raised hood. He gingerly rubbed the back of his curly head as he looked up at the panicky woman. "What's up?"

"_Please_ tell me you have Recall."

"'Course not," Wheeljack answered in confusion while gesturing towards Bluestreak. "I've been down here all night trying to fix his generator. Neither of us has seen the bitlets since last night. What's wrong?"

Victoria pulled at her hair and vanished back into the room without answering, prompting the engineer to close Bluestreak's hood and rush up the stairs to her second level room. He found the woman running around the room, looking in the tiny bathroom, in drawers, and under the table. "What is going on?"

"Recall is not here!" she said hysterically and gestured to the playpen they had bought yesterday for the very purpose of keeping the sparkling siblings safely enclosed for the night. "When I woke up this morning he wasn't _there!"_

Wheeljack looked in the direction of her jerky gesture and found an innocent Topaz sitting up against a mountain made of a pillow and blankets, innocently staring out into the room while chewing on the rubber nipple of a half empty bottle. "At least he's okay. If he wasn't then little miss over here would be crying. How did he get out without being noticed?"

Victoria pointed at the sparkling still sprawled out on the bed. "You try to hear anything in a single bed with a human sized Seekerlet purring on top of you!"

"Well now you know why you shouldn't meddle with indirect bonds," the engineer chided as he reached over to pet the mechling. Star whipped his helm around to snap at the fingers touching, managing to capture one between his sharp denta. "Ow! I thought we were past this stage of biting."

"Wheeljack stop playing! This is a serious matter," the woman snapped and reached over to roughly slap the holoform on the arm. "What if someone's taken him? I cannot deal with someone kidnapping one of my sparklings again!"

"Calm down," Wheeljack began soothingly while reaching over to stop the frantic woman's search. She slapped his hands away and continued nonetheless. "He couldn't have wandered off very far. Like I said, Topaz would be way more upset if her brother was either hurt or being taken away from her, and no one has left the motel since we got here. Both me and Blue are doing scans of the area, and-" He paused and grinned at her. "And what do you know, but Blue has found him! It seems like the little bugger managed to make it downstairs to the breakfast stuff. Guess he got a little hungry."

Wheeljack watched the woman immediately run out of the room with a brisk command of "Stay with them!" thrown over her shoulder before she disappeared. The disguised mech sat down on the end of the bed, earning a growl from Star when he almost sat on the mechling's pedes. He looked straight into the playpen where Topaz was squeezing one of her new toys that squeaked. "So…how did you two sleep?"

Meanwhile, Victoria was rushing down the staircase two steps at a time and only paused when she saw a mother and her young son coming out of the motel lobby. The mother was impatiently dragging the boy to their parked car while the boy was trying to pull her back towards the motel. "Mommy! I tellin' the twuf! I see a weal wobot! He got bwue eyes and he done somethin' to look just like-"

"Mmhmm sweetie, mommy hears you. Do you have your muffin? We need to get on the road if we want to meet nanny before lunch."

Victoria didn't wait to hear what else the small child had to say as she rushed into the lobby with the hope of no one else being there. Her prayers had been answered as the lobby was completely deserted with only its few chairs and small table with sparse collection of breakfast items. She glanced around just to be sure that no one was around before dropping to her knees and looking under anything where Recall could hide. "Recall! Where are you sweetie? Come to mommy."

There was a gurgle from under the table, and she immediately dived for it, yanking up the cheap white tablecloth that was draped across it. She blinked in confusion and stood up to glance out the window at the little boy being picked up and put into a car by his mother. She dropped back to her knees and looked under the table at the exact same boy giggling at her.

"Recall?" Victoria asked in confusion and actually jumped in surprise when the curly redhead clicked and buzzed back at her happily. "How the– you look _human!"_

The mechling chittered back at her while clumsily climbing to his feet. Unfortunately, the table was too low and he came up to fast, leading him to hit the bottom of the table with enough force that sent the plates and pitchers on top to rattle. He fell back onto his rump with surprise in his inhumanly bright blue eyes, which were soon filling up with blue tears as he whimpered in pain.

Victoria instinctively reached for him, and his first cries were muffled into her shoulder as she petted his back in comfort. "Shh, shh. It's okay baby. It was just a little bump on the head."

"Is everything alright miss?" Victoria whipped around to see what must have been an employee peeking out from a door behind the check in counter. He must have heard the cries and come to check on what was happening.

At first, the brunette tried to move to a position that would hide the sparkling but stopped halfway when the tips of her fingers brushed against the wispy strands of Recall's new red hair. She finished the potentially awkward move by clasping the back of his head, as if to bring him more comfort, and answered the employee as calmly as she could. "Yes, everything's fine. He was just crawling around and bumped his head under the table. "

The older man looked suspicious before shrugging and retreating back to the room he had been in. Recall whimpered again between his cries as Victoria quickly left the lobby. She dashed past Bluestreak to the stairs that led to the second level and was met by a confused Wheeljack outside their door. She shoved the stuttering scientist into the room before showing off the mechling-turned-human-boy. "What is going on? How can he do this?"

Wheeljack scratched the back of his head as Recall looked up at him with blue-stained cheeks. Something appeared to click with the Autobot, and he chuckled in astonishment. "Well I'll be slagged…"

"What? Wheeljack what is going on with him?"

Recall squealed as he was suddenly plucked from Victoria's grasp and spun around in Wheeljack's arms until they both came to a stop on the bed. The mechling sniffled up at the holoform's excited face. "No wonder I couldn't figure out what frame type you were! I wasn't paying attention to the right details."

Victoria moved to sit on the bed beside them and shifted accordingly when Star appeared on the empty side of her to snuggle. "Wheeljack, if you don't tell me what's wrong with this sparkling _right now_ I'll be forced to shove one of those muffins down at the continental breakfast up your tailpipe."

"You know if they pick up violent habits it'll all be your fault." She slapped in the arm, making him chuckle humorously. He pulled the sparkling closer to snuggle into the Autobot's lab coat. "There's nothing _wrong_ with Recall. He's doing exactly what his frame type is meant to do."

"Which is?"

"Blend in of course." The holoform's finger suddenly sparked, making Recall automatically flinch away before giggling at the ticklish feeling the spark produced. By the time Wheeljack had "kissed" him a couple of times and Topaz began to giggle along with her brother, Recall's "skin" began to break apart into tiny little pieces and fold in. The springs and wires of his hair began to reappear as the red hair disappeared, and the simple shirt and shorts he wore parted in the middle and folded back like the rest of his body to reveal the familiar glow of his spark. It was like watching a normal transformation only on a much smaller scale.

"Amazing," Wheeljack muttered once the mechling was back to his normal self and chirping up at him for more. "I always thought Pretenders needed specially made frames that could only be sparked by the AllSpark. How did you end up with a Mini-Bot for a sister?"

Victoria gently rubbed her temple in response to Wheeljack's seemingly random statements. "Stop. Explain to me what a Pretender is and why you couldn't figure this out earlier."

"Okay, okay, you thought it was amazing that we could blend in by transforming into vehicles? Pretenders can take that technology to a whole new level. They can literally transform and take on the appearance the native life forms on a planet. They can even take on the appearance of _organics._ And they are the _only_ Cybertronians with that capability, but they're also one of the rarest types especially through natural reproduction because more often than not, they're not outfitted with that equipment. Recall must have interacted with the boy he took the appearance of and activated his transformation protocols."

"I thought you said they were all too small to transform."

"Pretenders are oddballs. They can start as young as, well, Recall because their transformation cogs take less time to develop than say a Seeker because they're protoforms stay relatively small. Physically touching the organism they wish to mimic can activate the transformation protocols. Maybe Recall only meant to copy a movement made by the boy and inadvertently touched him. That of course doesn't mean he has control of it. Now that his form recognizes its full potential, Recall may go in and out of the form without realizing it. When he has a little more control, he might even be able to manipulate the transformation templates and create his own unique and individual disguise."

Victoria sat there and watched Wheeljack hold the sparkling high above his head before bringing him down to rub their noses together while praising him, "You such a smart bitlet!" Recall ate up the praise with a delighted squeal and demanded more shock-filled kisses by attempting to produce his own, concentrating cutely on the tip of his finger and touching Wheeljack's cheek before deflating at the lack of spark. The engineer didn't leave him hanging though and gave him as many kisses as he wanted.

The woman shook her head at the duo and began to pack up their things after Bluestreak impatiently honked his horn outside. Just what she needed: a curious sparkling that _already_ got into trouble by wondering away; now he had a way to perfectly blend into human society and not raise any suspicion.

Why was it that the universe never seemed to want to give her a break?

**)(**

"No, Recall. Don't take off your seatbelt."

The mechling pouted and snapped the strap back into the buckle between his legs, just as he watched Victoria do hours ago. He paused and suddenly exvented a sneeze, which was somehow a signal for his transformation sequence to initiate and leave a little redheaded boy in his seat. A little doll flew across the seat from Topaz's side of the car and hit him against the side of the head, making him release an instinctual cry (which was slowly beginning to actually sound like "Ow!" instead of a plain screech) and pick up the doll to throw back.

Victoria just sighed as the femmeling continued to throw anything within her grasp until Recall somehow found a way to transform back. The first time she had seen Recall randomly transform, she had started crying because she didn't understand where her brother had vanished to. After that, she had discovered through a system of trial and error that throwing things at him would make him eventually return to his normal self. They were beginning to discover that Topaz got her way _by any means necessary._

Bluestreak snickered as the femmeling held a flower shaped rattle above her head and gave a "battle cry" before throwing it at the mechling. "She is getting so much more active with each day that passes."

"Yeah," Victoria said absently while staring out at the buildings they passed by. "How much longer until we get to Eric's place?"

"About another block."

"And have you figured out what we're doing with the sparklings while we're here?"

"Eh…no."

The woman sighed and leaned back into her seat to rub her forehead. "This was a terrible idea."

"You always say that but everything turns out fine!" Bluestreak bucked her seat slightly in a playful gesture. "You're gonna have a great time here even if you don't particularly like the city."

"Blue, what are we seriously going to do with the sparklings? They can't just sit out in the parking garage with you and Wheeljack all day, and Eric will expect to see Blake and Jack at some point."

Bluestreak thought about that while waiting for the red light to turn green. Once he was moving again he said, "We can rent a swanky hotel room while we stay here. Oh! There's an available room at The Ritz-Carlton…and we could get the Presidential Suite!"

"That's too-"

"Wheeljack highly approves of my choice and is making reservations."

Victoria rolled her eyes in the direction of the truck two vehicles in front of them. "You guys have absolutely no idea how the whole 'incognito' thing really works. How do you manage to stay under the radar with your fancy alt-forms and blowing hundreds of dollars without batting an eye?"

"_Very_ carefully," Bluestreak exaggerated as he pulled into the parking garage directly across from Eric's apartment building. Recall "ohh"ed at the sudden change in lighting and scenery before squeaking at the bottle that hit his head. They had to go up two levels before finding any empty parking spaces settle into. "Anyway, once Wheeljack finishes fixing my holo-generator, we can switch out sparkling-sitting duty. That way you get to spend time with Eric, one of us will be there with an excuse for the other, and the other will be at the hotel where the sparklings can make as big of a mess as they want because someone else gets to clean it up!"

Victoria hummed in acceptance but refused to get out. "Are you guys going to tell Smokescreen about the sparklings?"

"Of course. This isn't something we can keep from him, but it's not like he'll really want anything to do with them. Smokey doesn't particularly dislike sparklings, but he also doesn't _like _them. He knows they're in good hands with us."

The woman sighed and sat in her seat, arms crossed over her chest and a reluctant look in her eyes. Minutes passed before Bluestreak suddenly moved. The passenger door opened, the seatbelt retracted, and the seat tilted sideways to make the unsuspecting woman roll out of the car with a surprised squeak. The door closed just as quickly as it had opened, and the mech rolled down his window for her to hear the amused laughter of both him and Recall. "Go see your brother!"

Victoria huffed and stood up to dust her jeans and shirt off, throwing a glare across the aisle at the shaking-from-repressed-laughter Wheeljack. "Fine! I'm going."

She stomped over to the staircase not far from them and mockingly stuck her tongue out their direction before the door closed behind her. She had at least hoped that Wheeljack would tag along with her. She'd never visited her brother's apartment before. Sure she knew which apartment building it was, and the number of his unit. But…this was just a whole new experience! She didn't like to do "new" on her own; that was why she often stuck to her normal agenda and was a naturally boring person.

Adventurous wasn't an attribute she had while alone.

The woman didn't look anybody in the eye while briskly crossing the street and running up to catch the door of the apartment building before it completely closed behind a little old woman. She tried as nonchalantly as possible to enter the elevator with the woman. It was silent in the enclosed space as they rode up to the fourth floor, and Victoria almost jumped out of her skin when the woman spoke. "I've never seen you before? Are you new to the building?"

"Umm no, I'm just visiting my brother," Victoria answered and awkwardly put a finger to her lips. "I was hoping on surprising him."

The woman's eyes glittered with amusement as she nodded and got off two floors before her. She sighed to release her sudden tension and leaned against the back wall of the elevator. She hated these things; they were too small and it never helped that Eric had convinced her at a very young age that one would breakdown with only her in it. She knew the chances of that ever happening were slim, but so was meeting giant aliens from a made-up planet stuck in little toy replicas of themselves.

In other words, anything was possible at this point.

When the doors pinged open, Victoria launched herself out and glared at them over her shoulder. She was taking the stairs from now on—four flights of them be damned. Her eyes darted from one side of the hallway to the other, searching for her brother's number. Once she found it, she stood there and stared at it for a good minute before tentatively knocking on the door.

What if she had the number wrong? She had only seen it a few times on the rare package that Eric or Smokescreen sent them. What if he had guests? Or a girlfriend? What if she was interrupting quality time with that girlfriend?

…no Eric would have bragged about that girlfriend during one of the calls, but what if he wasn't even at home? A man his age, living alone or with a roommate would have a job during the day…

Victoria jumped as the door swung open and blinked at the man in front of her. He blinked back with a lighter shade of grey eyes and snatched the headset off his unruly head and passed a hand over the scruff that covered his chin and cheeks as if to magically wipe it away and attempted to straighten the wrinkled shirt he had on. "The hell are you doing here Vi?"

What a great way to be greeted by her apparent bum of a brother.

* * *

**AN:** I've been waiting for so long to reveal that Recall is a Pretender :) I loved the concept of Alice in ROTF, so Recall was supposed to be like a mini version of her...only cuter...and not as creepy :3 And Victoria finally pays attention to her neglected bonds. That was actually a more difficult concept to write than I thought it would be, and I don't know why...anyway, it's kind of obvious who the fourth bond belongs to now, if you haven't already figured it out ;)

Plus Eric :D He's been talked about throughout this story and _Pint Sized _and had little scenes at the beginning. Next chapter you get to see who the _real_ Eric is ;)


	13. Brother and Sister

**AN: **o_O An update :D Super sorry for the absence, but everything that isn't school related is suffering at the moment. But have no fear! After my finals (which will be going on for the next week or two) I'll have plenty of more time to write and get some real progress on this story…hopefully.

"_Thinking"  
:Comm. Talk:  
_**~Bond Speech~**

Time Units  
_Vorn: 83 years_

* * *

A New Version of Reality

Chapter Eleven

Brother and Sister

**Brothers and sisters are as close as hands and feet.-Vietnamese Proverb**

* * *

There was only a brief second of stunned disbelief before Victoria glared and put her fists on her hips. "Is that any way to greet your only sister?"

Eric blinked and attempted to smooth down his flyaway hair and scrubbed his cheek again, nudging the headphones he had dangled around his neck. "It is when she shows up out of the blue! What are you doing here? Did something happen? Oh God, Jack finally blew himself up didn't he? Didn't he?!"

"Don't sound so excited about it," Victoria said with an eye roll. "Are you going to let me in or are we gonna stand here all day?"

The dirty blond shifted out of the way to let her in and locked the door back up behind her. He turned to see her standing outside of the living room with a hand over her mouth and nose. "If Jack finally blew himself, can you imagine the awesome conversation starter that would make? No more 'I have a pseudo-uncle that has the potential of creating a level nine catastrophe,' but 'My pseudo-uncle made himself explode!' But enough of that, give your big bro a hug."

"No!" the woman shrieked behind her hand, jumping out of Eric's reach. "You _stink_. This whole place stinks. Did a skunk die in here or something?"

"Well, we _did_ have a hamster when we first moved in. He vanished without a trace one day and we've never been able to find him. So he's either repopulated the building's rodent population or curled up in a corner and died…I'm going with the first one though because the lady five doors down is always complaining and tailless rats running around her apartment."

"That's not funny," his sister said as she danced away from his wiggling fingers. "I'm not touching you until you smell better!"

"Oh _come on._ I don't smell that bad!" Her shaking head prompted him to lift up a portion of his sweatshirt and take a liberal sniff before choking on the stench. "Okay, maybe it's worse than I thought."

"'Worse than you thought'? Eric, it's like a pigsty in here! Except a pig wouldn't even get _this _dirty."

"Wha'?" Eric twisted around and finally noticed the empty cans, old pizza boxes, and various other trash littering the living room. "Jeez…but we just cleaned the other day!"

"When?"

"When we always do. We do massive cleanups at the beginning of each month and then we rotate who's in charge with keeping it clean for that month." He noticed his sister's eyes widening to almost comical proportions. "What?"

"Eric, it's nearly the end of the month. What drugs are you taking to lose that much time?"

"I'm not on drugs! I've just been…busy with stuff. Although that does explain where these lovely whiskers came from."

Victoria scrunched her nose in mock disgust as her brother rubbed the hair on cheek. "Don't pet your beard Eric. It's creepy."

"You're just jealous that you don't have a man with this kind of style."

"And if I had a man who looked like you'd run him away."

"Damn straight. Then I'd conspire with Jack and make him explode."

A smile flickered across the woman's face as she lowered her hand. She thought it was funny that Eric would attempt to "protect" her when he couldn't even take care of himself. "Go get clean while I unbury your couch. _Then_ we can have a proper conversation."

Eric nodded and retreated further into the apartment shouting, "The beard's staying!" Victoria simply sighed when she heard a door shut and looked into the living room. She hadn't imagined having to clean her brother's apartment, but if she were to stay then something had to be done about this colossal mess.

The first order of business was wading through the trash to open the window and allow the stench that had accumulated to vent out. She sighed at the huge difference it made and hung her head out of the window for a minute. The open parking garage was right across the street from, and she waved without thinking. The happy feeling she got from Bluestreak kept her from feeling stupid with waving at a building, and she turned back to her daunting task.

This required that she search for a garbage bag, which prompted her to the kitchen where she was positive she would find just that. The sight of the other room made Victoria cringe even more. It was _worse_ than the living room with its overflowing trashcan and takeout boxes that littered every available surface. At least it appeared that Eric preferred the use of Styrofoam plates and red _Solo_ cups as opposed to porcelain and glass, so that saved her from having to experience the horrible task of cleaning dishes.

A trash bag was located under the sink after some tentative poking around (she was seriously beginning to believe that something might jump out from under the piles of trash and drag her to a trashy underworld), and Victoria hurried back to the "cleaner" room. She stared at the mess and wondered what Eric had been doing to not notice how bad it had become. How had Smokescreen even allowed it to get this bad? From what she remembered, the gambler/tactician had been a stickler for keeping the environment around him clean even if that meant not necessarily keeping _himself_ in perfectly waxed condition. For instance, he hadn't minded the temporary mud that would cover him and Bluestreak after the concept of "mud bogging" had been introduced to them, but if Wheeljack were to leave his boxes of "junk" around the house, the older Praxian would have a hissy fit.

Where was Smokescreen anyway? Neither Bluestreak nor Wheeljack had made any mentions of him being in the area. Maybe he _had_ had a hissy fit over the mess and Eric had been too distracted to notice the mech stomping out. Or maybe Smokescreen had learned the moment he had "moved in" with Eric that it was near impossible for the human to keep his living space spotless.

By the time Eric returned, now dressed in a clean t-shirt and jeans and with his hair still damp from the shower, Victoria had managed to shove a good deal of the trash into the bag. He stood at the edge of the room and sheepishly rubbed the back of his head at the sight of his little sister crouched down and digging coke cans out from beneath the couch with a random pen she had found lying around. "This is a little awkward. My baby sister's first trip to San Francisco is being spent cleaning my living room."

Victoria blew a strand of hair out of her face as she looked up to see her clean brother. She grinned and stood up to walk over to him, arms outstretched in a welcoming gesture. Once she had been dragged into a big bear hug, she dramatically sniffed the collar of his shirt before placing an affectionate kiss on his whiskered cheek. "Much better. Now you smell like a field of daisies instead of a garbage dump."

"I smell like a _man_ now," Eric corrected her as he returned her kiss with a raspberry on the cheek, which made her squeal in disgust. "Axe promises I'll get all the ladies!"

"Mmhmm, you just remember 'all the ladies' includes old women and me too."

"You're not a lady; you're a sister. Two completely different things."

Victoria snorted at his logic and pushed him away. "Alright, lovey-dovey bonding is over. Now you get to clean your apartment."

"No! Cleaning—my only weakness. Aside from bullets…and explosions…and anything else that can kill me. Like fish and month old milk."

"It's your own fault," Victoria said without remorse, handing over the trash bag so she could flop down on the couch. Eric whined and slowly bent over to pick up a plastic fork between his thumb and forefinger. "How did Shawn let the place get so bad?"

Eric paused in thought and held up a finger to signal for her to wait a moment before dashing into the kitchen. She couldn't see into the room but heard him rummaging through some of the trash before returning victorious with a slightly stained piece of paper. "Ah ha! He went to a psychiatry convention four days ago and will be returning…today! Oh, and he also put a note on here for me to—and I quote—'clean up this slagging mess before I return or I will'…well, that's not very nice."

"For a moment I actually hoped that he had moved out," Victoria said as she watched her brother ball up the note and throw it into the trash bag. "I don't even get how a person could let this mess get so bad. Your room before you moved out was nothing compared to this."

"I've just been busy," the twenty five year old whined while flicking a half-eaten pizza crust into his bag. "I'm trying to become famous!"

Victoria perked up and leaned forward with elbows on her knees. "Really? Have you finally gotten someone to look at your work?"

"No." Eric critically frowned at her, and it didn't take a genius to see the extreme disappointment that now saturated his posture. However, he perked up immediately afterwards, and she was reminded of a mindless puppy. Or an adorable door-winged Bluestreak. "But I'm taking a different approach now, one that should be a lot easier than handling the dicks at the publishers."

The brunette frowned at her brother's language but sighed and stood up when he ran out of the room. She followed at a more subdued pace and stopped at the door leading into her brother's room. Her eyebrows perked up at the fact that it was cleanest room she had seen at this point but cut her observations short as Eric gestured her over to the little nook he had created by positioning his desk in the corner with the back facing the door.

The computer monitor positioned in the center was almost unrecognizable beneath the various sizes of paper that were stuck to any surface possible, and Victoria took the moment (as she always did) to admire her brother's neat and random sketches. There were several sketches of environments, like a fancy dining room or a dark forest, that were tapped to the shelves above the computer while scribbles and more sketches littered the area around the monitor along with various "artist tools".

Eric grabbed her shoulders and pushed her into the small desk chair before picking up the headphones he had had on earlier and snapping them onto her head. He studiously ignored her glare as he wiggled the mouse to turn the monitor back on and scooted the keyboard closer to her. "Try this."

Victoria looked at the screen that now that was no longer black and couldn't help but be reminded of the games her brother used to play on the GameBoy with its 2D graphics. It was just an image of a simple room with one pixelated character nonchalantly standing in the middle.

"Okay, move the arrow keys like this and press the spacebar to interact with stuff like this," Eric explained with a brief demonstration. "That's all you need to know right now."

Victoria hummed and began to move her little person around the room without his help. There was a reason why she didn't play video games anymore and it wasn't because he outgrew them. It was because she took them _way_ too seriously. The mechs had witnessed that firsthand during their "video game showdown" so long ago in the cabin. She liked to _win_ and she liked to do it on her own. So when someone else beat her, she did get angry. And she might say a few bad words…or throw a controller across the room.

So once her brother had given her the basics, she tuned him out and focused on the game, walking around the building she was apparently trapped in and clicking on anything that looked important. Eric flopped onto the bed beside her and mischievously grinned at her.

"What's the point of this game?" Victoria finally asked after a good ten minutes of no progress.

"You'll see."

The woman glared at the screen instead of him and continued to make her character run around. "So, how are you trying to make yourself famous now?"

Eric released a sigh and rolled onto his back. "While I was in college, I took a couple of course on computer programming classes to make up for the extra credits I needed. I met a cool guy in that class who was trying to be a game designer and he suggested that I try something like that if being a cartoonist didn't work. I just scoffed at the prediction of failure, but lately…I don't know. I was just getting tired of rejection, so I thought about putting my characters in a game instead of a comic book. Shawn thought it was a great idea and told me to go for it."

"So this is the game you're working on?" Victoria asked impressed. It was boring to run around and do basically nothing but making a game couldn't have been easy.

"No, that's the horror game I was playing before you showed up."

There was no time to respond as her character ran into a room and a sudden image flashed onto the screen with a loud scream that accompanied it through the headphones. Victoria instinctively screamed along with it and threw the headphones at her now laughing brother. "Eric! You…you!"

Eric was too busy gasping for air to fend off the fists that started punching him in the sides. "I–I couldn't resist! You were ju–just here, and I love you Vicky!"

Victoria huffed as he brother continued to laugh and took the time to reassure Bluestreak that the brief pulse of fear she felt was a false alarm. By the time she managed to do that, Eric was sitting back up and pulling her into a strangling hug. "I've missed you so much Vi. We need to visit each other more often."

The woman felt her previous anger fade as she returned the hug and allowed herself to be swayed back and forth. She'd have to come up with an amazing way to thank Bluestreak for convincing her to visit later.

**)(**

If asked to choose one thing he hated about the city at that very moment, Smokescreen would have to pick rush hour traffic. It. Fragging. _Sucked._ And honestly, he probably wouldn't have particularly minded if he hadn't been gone for five days. Normally he reveled at the chance to spend time without having to use the holoform generator. Sometimes he even pretended he had things to do just to drive around without making Eric suspicious.

And he supposed that's what it all came back to: Eric. The energetic, never able to be contained, almost inhuman ball of energy known as _Eric._ Smokescreen had known the man for over a decade now and he was still surprised by the human on many occasions. Eric had never been fazed by the times the mech almost completely ignored him, interrupting what he was doing by almost jumping in his lap and blabbing about the latest idea he had for his comic or (during their college years) dragging him to a new party every weekend just to mess around for ten minutes before wanting to leave and grab an ice cream cone or something. In some ways he was almost like a human version of Bluestreak.

Because of this, it was only recently that Smokescreen had begun to notice something…_off_ about the man.

The mech wasn't sure when it had actually started, but it came to his attention about a couple of months ago after returning home from work as a "secretary" at a local psychiatrist's office. Honestly it felt like he was doing most of the work with the doctor's patients half the time. Eric had actually come by once to take him out to a surprise "birthday" lunch and jokingly asked him after waiting for an hour for a regular to finish asking for his help and walking out before his session with a happy smile if they would be turning the front area into his office any time soon.

But he was getting off topic. Eric hadn't been acting himself lately. Smokescreen had actually been surprised the first night that his roommate hadn't bounced out of his room to inquire about his day. He had shrugged it off and thought that maybe Eric was tired from his shift at a local comic store. But a pattern began to form where Eric wouldn't even acknowledge his presence unless directly addressed.

This got Smokescreen to watching him a little more closely, almost to the same amount of intensity he had the first years of friendship. Eric would seem fine for a couple of weeks, and then he would just become a metaphorical recluse for a few days before popping back up with a fake smile plastered on his face. Smokescreen had actually gone to question some of the man's coworkers about his behavior at work (which he made sure that Eric would never find out about), and was _very_ surprised to hear from them that Eric always acted the same, talkative and energetic. So the tactician concluded that it was something their home environment that made his human depressed.

It took him a while longer to actually figure out what it was that brought the usually happy man down. He never acted this new uncharacteristic way when he spoke to his dad on the phone or through the webcam with his sister, so that let Smokescreen know that it wasn't a family issue he wasn't aware of. When he finally caught on to what had changed in his roommate, he had felt like an idiot for not noticing it sooner.

Eric had always had a tendency to show off his work to both Smokescreen and Victoria. The both of them were his go to people when he had a new concept he wanted to talk out for his fictional characters and worlds or when he wanted their opinion about something he had drawn. His room was like his own personal art gallery, which he never shut off because of the true pride he had for works. He had even pointedly taken the rare guests they had to his room in order to show off his work and lavish in their honest praise.

So why had he started shutting his room off? It _was_ possible that he had suddenly developed the innate need for privacy that all humans fussed about, but Smokescreen couldn't rule that as the reason. Nothing had seemed off with the room when he had investigated (Eric's signature "organized" mess scattered around the small room and the wallpaper of drawings undisturbed), and Smokescreen had concluded that he more observation of the man was needed.

His patient observing had finally paid off about four months ago when Eric had received a thick yellow envelope from an address that Smokescreen didn't recognize. The artist had snatched the envelope from the pseudo-human's hand and nearly ripped it apart with unconcealed eagerness. Smokescreen had waited patiently for an explanation but could only watch as the excitement fled from the man's eyes and deep disappointment set in as he finished reading the letter that had accompanied it. Eric had tossed the letter and envelope away without a second glance and retreated to his room without a word, leaving Smokescreen to dig the mail back out and skim over the letter.

Smokescreen's spark truly went out to the man when he had realized it was a letter rejecting his latest comic book submission, and he had dug out the rough draft of that very comic from the envelope the letter had come in. There was never a day since their friendship had begun that Eric didn't insistently tell Smokescreen that he would one day be a famous cartoonist. It wasn't until he had found himself in college that he had shifted the general term "cartoonist" to "comic book illustrator/writer," but the message had never changed. Eric said he was going to do it, and Smokescreen had actually adopted the belief that whatever Eric said he would do, he did.

Eric received three more rejection letters and fell deeper and deeper into a depression that he attempted to keep hidden from Smokescreen but astronomically failed to do so. Smokescreen could only keep his friend focused on the present and actively praise and critic the new drafts that he drew up. Smokescreen had downloaded everything necessary to understand and treat a number mental illnesses and disorders, but it was somehow made harder to view what Eric was going through in a clinical manner. Smokescreen had never had that problem before, knowing beforehand what a "patient" was going through and not having the problem of personal ties.

Smokescreen was surprised when Eric had pounced on him with enthusiasm he had missed about a month ago. Apparently he had run into an old college buddy during his lunch break and had been given the sudden inspiration to publish his comics with a different method. The mech had patiently listened to how he planned to start the creation of a simple video game that he would shoot off into cyberspace and observe how well it did. Smokescreen made sure to explain the possibility of the idea backfiring, but Eric had claimed that if it did, he would finally understand the rejection he continuously received and put his dream into storage to focus on more "realistic" goals.

While it was disturbing to hear that Eric would give up on his dream so easily, Smokescreen was undeniably pleased to see the human's enthusiasm and determination return in full force. His behavior had taken a one-eighty back to how he originally acted as he sought out Smokescreen for various reasons. He hadn't suddenly changed back into the "Old Eric," which was why the tactician had been a little reluctant to leave for nearly a week to attend the psychiatric convention he had signed up for nearly a year in advance.

Smokescreen had seen many humans with various mental issues since working in a psychiatrist's office, and depression had been one of the most prevalent issues he had seen firsthand. He had seen just as many people come in with nothing but smiles and an upbeat attitude as people who came in and looked like they had just given up. So he knew that someone who was depressed might not always reflect that on the outside, and on top of that he had witnessed those who had thought themselves "cured" back a couple of weeks later. He doubted that Eric would have done anything severe in his absence, but he still hadn't felt comfortable with leaving even with the human practically shoving him out the door.

Smokescreen revved his engine in a kind of sigh as traffic finally began to move a little. Since when he had he started to care about the human? To be honest he had never _wanted_ to make friends with the humans. Alliances were fine—they signified a relationship that was only temporary when needed or political in nature. Friendship was a completely different thing. He didn't want to grow attached to a being whose average life expectancy wasn't even a vorn. It'll be bad enough dealing with Bluestreak when his human's life came to an end…

"_Well you fragged that up a while ago Smokey,"_ he chided himself as he finally pulled into the parking garage across from their apartment. _"You should have kept yourself objective like Prowl would have instead of getting attached like Bluestreak does."_

His internal admittance was cut short when he finally noticed his short ranged scanners were picking up on a group of unknown energy signatures on _his_ parking level. Tires shrieked against the concrete and left skid marks behind as he came to a sudden stop and evaluated the signatures while simultaneously shifting through his options. He was already halfway up to the second floor and the limited space made it impossible to turn around and retreat without damaging himself, so that option was to be chosen last. He was small enough to transform once he entered the main parking area, but there was the chance of being seen by humans and he didn't want to make the mistake of doing that again. The reminder of potential human life just complicated the matters. Maybe he could try transforming here to turn himself around and retreat…

_:Smokey!:_

Smokescreen jolted on his axles before his engine purred in recognition of the voice. He continued up the ramp and rolled to the other end of the floor to find an excited Bluestreak and strangely silent Wheeljack hidden in the corner. Bluestreak would have revved his own engine in greeting if there currently wasn't half a man sticking out of his engine. The lone Autobot pulled into an empty space not far from them and activated his holoform to greet them openly. "What are you guys doing here?"

"Way to welcome us!" Wheeljack teasingly complained as straightened up to wave at Smokescreen. "And here I thought you'd be grateful for some company."

"Not ungrateful," the gambler corrected as he went over to lean against Bluestreak's side. He jumped back in surprise when he heard a series of knocks against the window he leaned on and stared at it with suspicion. "Just surprised by your appearance. Run into some trouble on the way here?"

Wheeljack shook his head when he noticed Smokescreen nod in the direction of Bluestreak's exposed insides. "Nope, this was done beforehand. Blue finally found a way to short circuit the holo-generator, and it's been a real pain in the aft to fix." Wheeljack paused before victoriously flinging his arms in the air, showcasing his oil tinged fingers. "I did it! Suck on that generator!"

Smokescreen rolled his eyes at the ridiculous victory dance Wheeljack began and didn't flinch at all when Bluestreak's holoform haltingly fizzed to life beside him. There was an excited series of knocks against the window of his alt-form and happy, but muffled, squeals began to accompany them as Bluestreak leaned in close to make funny faces at his darkly tinted windows. The tactician raised an eyebrow in silent question when Bluestreak looked up at him. "Please tell me your human didn't magically have a child since the last time Eric spoke to her. If she did, then I have no control over what he might do."

"I hope not," Wheeljack answered instead, still doing a little victory jig. "Because if she did, then we've got an unfortunate slagger to track down and, uh, _talk to_."

Bluestreak snickered as Smokescreen rolled his eyes at the dance moves that would even make the ever open-minded Jazz cringe. "We found something amazing Smokey! They just crashed to Earth a week or two ago, and I was suspicious for a little bit 'cause they were in a Decepticon pod, but they're just too adorable to remain suspicious about! At least Recall is; Star's a mini-'Con in the making, and we only found Topaz a day ago. The poor thing was being kept prisoner!"

"What?" Smokescreen questioned when he had the chance. "What are you talking about?"

The window behind him rolled down halfway, which was enough for the little being inside to practically fling himself out and cling to Bluestreak's waist. The gambler jumped back in instinct, eyes widening at the twittering mechanical being that tried to climb up Bluestreak in order to snuggle into his neck. "What the –where the frag did that come from?"

"Bluestreak's insides," Wheeljack answered once more, face completely blank and "serious" until the older Praxian sent him a deadly glare. "Just kidding! Bluestreak's already told you where he came from. Other than that, we have no clue."

"Isn't he adorable?" Bluestreak gushed, leaning closer to the other mech for Recall to reach out for with a giggle. "He wasn't this cute when we first met him. I have taught him well."

Recall whistled in obvious disappointment when Smokescreen didn't reciprocate his want to snuggle, even going so far as to take a step away from the sparkling. "Yeah, it's cute…what are you going to do with it?"

"Raise them to be little minions and do all my dastardly scientific needs."

"They're definitely staying with us," Bluestreak said simultaneously with Wheeljack, a mask of intense seriousness falling over his features as he hugged the purring mechling closer. "Even Star. I wouldn't feel comfortable leaving them in someone else's care, and I don't think it would be very smart to make them go with another person now either. They've gotten attached to us and separating them after everything they've gone through is just cruel."

Smokescreen dumbly watched Recall babble to Bluestreak and the young mech babble back before a sudden epiphany washed over him. "There's more than one?"

"Are you alright?" the oldest Autobot asked with half concern and half teasing as he poked the back of Smokescreen's head. "It usually doesn't take you this long to process stuff. You need a tune up?"

"No," Smokescreen snapped in aggravation, which faded away as Bluestreak completely rolled down his window for him to see Topaz lying on an outstretched seat and shaking a rattle around. Her yellow optics focused on him for a moment before filling up with translucent tears and a whimper escaped her. Recall reflexively mimicked her before stretching his arms and voicing demanding clicks. The tactician stepped aside to allow Bluestreak to put the mechling back inside where he flipped over to snuggle against the upset femmeling. "What's wrong with her?"

"She'll grow up to have a man complex. It's a very complicated and long story."

"I've got time."

"Well we don't," Wheeljack firmly finished with a head gesture towards Bluestreak. "We've got thirty minutes to claim our exotic suite before they hand it over to another big shot. Plus I have a Seekerlet who's not a very happy camper at the moment."

He flinched before the other two jumped in surprise at the sound of a horn from behind them. There was a pause before the horn was repeatedly honked in a mindless rhythm, which made Recall laugh at the "music" it created. Wheeljack sighed and seemed to be in slight pain as the honking persisted. "It's not fun to have your horn honked."

"Really? You seem to enjoy 'tooting your own horn' every once in a while." The engineer stared blankly at the widely grinning Bluestreak before the use of the idiom finally dawned on him and he started to laugh. Smokescreen just shook his head as the honking became increasingly impatient. "Anyway, Smokey and I'll go get Vicky so we can head over to the hotel before the sparklings become too antsy."

"Yeah, you do that," Wheeljack said with a wave as the two Praxians' holoforms headed to the garage's staircase. He twirled around to glare at…himself…but primarily on the Seekerlet inside who was continuously honking his horn now. "You leave my horn alone Star! Recall, your giggling is encouraging him. Be like your sister and glare at everyone every once in a while."

Of course neither of the sparklings listened to him, and Star kept a steady force on the horn until the engineer was forced to confront him face to face while Recall continuously giggled inside of Bluestreak with his unamused sister, who wacked him in the head with her rattle when his giggles made him transform.

While Recall was being smacked by his sister, Bluestreak was skipping across the street with a lightly amused Smokescreen following him. The friendly mech happily greeted one of the most sullen tenants in the apartment building as Smokescreen shoved him through the door to avoid awkward conversation and even began to twirl around to the elevator music once they had boarded.

"What's gotten into you?" Smokescreen finally asked when Bluestreak began to sing a random song to go along with his dance. "You're a perky mech, but this is taking it a little too far."

"I'm just so happy!" Bluestreak gushed as he continuously twirled without the worry of dizziness setting in. "I forgot how much fun it was to use the holoforms. Human bodies are so much more flexible than our own, and I can't continuously twirl like this because my door-wings are too bulky to allow it, and now I can talk to people without drawing too much attention, and eat cookies again, and –puppy!"

Bluestreak transferred his sudden giddiness to the small Labrador puppy that was revealed when the doors to the elevator slid open on their floor. The puppy barked and hopped around with the mech's infectious joy, and the woman on the other end of the leash giggled at the blond teenager who bent down to rub behind the puppy's ears as his voice dropped to what would have been an embarrassing level for any man/mech not Bluestreak.

Smokescreen felt like smacking his forehead as he apologized and dragged his giddy companion away from the dog and flirtatious owner. He had had a run in with her before and knew that once she started it took a miracle to escape. He looked down to see Bluestreak pouting at being dragged away. "Hey, be grateful. I just saved you a year of needing my expertise."

"I wanted to play with the puppy…" The younger mech trailed off as they reached the correct door and he pouted off to the side while Smokescreen reached for key he always left on the top of the door frame. "I want a puppy now. We could train him to sniff out 'Cons and signal us like Nuisance does."

Smokescreen would have responded if the door hadn't swung open to reveal a surprised duo of siblings. Bluestreak waved to them with a happy smile, and Smokescreen raised an inquisitive eyebrow at the panicked look on Eric's face. Victoria shoved past the older mech to stand beside Bluestreak. "Hey _Blake._ I was just about to come and see if you guys had gotten a place to stay since I just realized my phone was left back at the house."

The tactician noticed the worried look that crossed Bluestreak's face before he perked up again. "Really? That's too bad, but I was just coming to get _you_ so we can go check in. Dad got a good deal on a _really_ nice room that I think you'll love."

Now it was Victoria's turn to frown at the innocently smiling blond before turning to hug her brother in farewell. "I'll be back to see you again tomorrow. I don't know how long we'll be staying here, but maybe you can give a quick tour of the city before leave."

"It's not that great," Eric playfully complained as he squeezed her back. "I'll take you to see the bridge and the Walt Disney museum sometime during your stay…if I'm allowed to leave the apartment."

Victoria hummed in agreement before letting go and heading towards the elevator without a single glance at Smokescreen. He waited until Bluestreak skipped afterwards and they reached the elevator before dramatically spreading his arms out and yelling after her, "How mature is that? You're not even going to acknowledge my presence this time?"

"Do you hear that?" the woman asked Bluestreak just enough for the two males to hear. "I think I might need to go to the doctor and ask him about this annoying ringing in my ear."

Eric snickered as the elevator doors closed and quickly blocked the doorway from Smokescreen to enter. "I can't believe you're home so early! Did you have fun? I bet you have a lot to talk about."

Smokescreen was instantly suspicious of the panic that returned in the man. "What are you hiding?"

"Me? Pfft, nothing! I was a good boy while you away." Eric inched inside the apartment as Smokescreen loomed closer. "Yep…I totally knew you were coming home today."

Smokescreen lunged towards the door as Eric just as quickly slipped back in and slammed it shut. The mech grabbed the doorknob and wiggled it to no avail before pounding on the door. "Eric! You didn't clean up the apartment, did you? Do you know how much it'll cost if we can't get the stench out? Open this door and let me in!"

Instead of complying with the demand, Smokescreen heard the latch on their door slide into place and kicked the door. "You're technically not home yet, so I'll have it cleaned before you get here!"

"That doesn't even make sense! Open this door before I break it down and fulfill my promise of shoving your mess up your fragging-"

"Ahem!"

Smokescreen twisted around in surprise to see the middle aged woman from down the hallway staring at him with accusing surprise. He laughed nervously and took a step away from the door. "He locked me out again. Sorry to disturb you."

She shuffled past him, making sure not to come into contact, before hurrying down the corridor. If it weren't for his enhanced hearing he would have missed her mumbles of calling the police to anonymously report him for "domestic violence towards his partner." Smokescreen groaned at the implication and hit his head against the door, where the sound of a vacuum cleaner was now being used.

Despite his annoyance with the situation, he was happy to acknowledge the genuine happiness he had seen on his roommate's face.

**)(**

"Rock-a-bye baby in the treetop; when the wind blows, the cradle will rock. When the bough breaks, the cradle will…fall!"

Wheeljack couldn't keep the grin off his face as Recall laughed hysterically when Victoria flipped him upside on her lap. He was still giggling when she sat him back up and insistently cooed at her while trying to flip back over. Victoria dragged him back up and rolled them into the middle of the king sized bed where Topaz was lying on her back, kicking the air while chewing on the stuffed bear they had bought her the day before. She grunted as Recall dragged her into the cuddling and pulled on one of his springs when they were within her grasp.

Recall squealed for a moment before ducking his head closer so that the tugs wouldn't hurt. The squealing caught Star's attention, making him look up from the pillow fortress he was making on the other bed before diving back into the center. This new behavior was _extremely_ fascinating to the engineer as it showed a new aspect of Seeker behavior to him. While Star had never exhibited the behavior before, he had immediately upon arrival staked claim on the second bed and all the pillows in the room, which was why he was currently peeking out of his "nest" and glaring at Bluestreak for having the last pillow in the room. The only ones allowed anywhere near his bed were Victoria and Recall (because the little Pretender refused to acknowledge the hisses from the Seekerlet).

"Why do you feel sticky?" Victoria muttered as she poked the little Pretender's side, making him giggle and twist around to poke her too. Topaz jerked on his spring to make him turn back around. The woman rolled onto her back to look at where Wheeljack and Bluestreak sat on a couch on the other side of the room. "Why does he feel sticky?"

"Energon treats," Wheeljack answered with a happy grin. "They were only the ones I managed to cook up before we left, and it's a universal truth that treats can keep a kid preoccupied for a while. How else were we going to get him to behave the whole time you were with your brother? Well they behaved until the treats ran out."

"I think more got on you than inside your tummy," Victoria said as she tickled her fingers up the sparkling's sides. He reflexively giggled and wiggled around to tickle his sister, who looked at him like he had completely lost his mind. "Somebody needs a bath. Fortunately we have a huge bath because of your Papa Jack's childish need to blow loads of money that could feed a poor third world country."

"I didn't hear any complaining when you and Blue ordered that fancy meal from room service," Wheeljack easily teased while watching Recall climb off the bed and toddle after the woman to the bathroom. His grin widened at the happy squeal that followed the sound of rushing water and took the chance to hurry over and dramatically lay out on the bed beside Topaz. "How you doin' princess?"

The femmeling stared at him with bright optics before attempting to wiggle away. The engineer sighed at the reaction. Because of the trauma she had been through on her first days on Earth, Topaz was _very_ wary of adult human males, especially new strangers. She was slowly getting used to Wheeljack and Bluestreak's holoforms thanks to Victoria's simultaneous interaction between them, but the Autobot worried that her first and only real contact with a human may forever taint her perspective of them.

But that was for the future. All of the sparklings were at a very critical period of growth, both physically and mentally, and the events they were a part of for the next few years would shape their adult personalities.

Speaking of which, Wheeljack turned his attention to the blond hugging a pillow to his chest and defiantly staring at the only part of the Seekerlet he could see. "Blue, just give him the pillow and no one will get hurt."

"No," Bluestreak said with a pout. "He has all the other pillows, and he never shares his things with anyone else. Why should I share my pillow with him?"

"Because you are the bigger mech. He's just a sparkling." Wheeljack carefully reached over to rub the horn nubs on Topaz's helm, earning a relaxed rumble from her tiny engine. "And it seems to just be his nature as a Seeker. We don't need to stifle that basic coding or he won't grow up to be a proper Seeker."

"How is that bad?"

Wheeljack blinked and sat up when the femmeling's systems began to emit an unnatural hum. "'How bad is that?' That's like taking a…what's a good comparison? A Mini-Bot and a gladiator! You take a sweet, innocent little Mini-Bot sparkling and have him raised by a nasty, hardened gladiator. Now normally Mini-Bots are kind and companionable in nature-"

"When was the last time you spoke to Cliffjumper?"

"I said _normally_, and don't interrupt my analogies. Where was I? But if you put them in the environment of a gladiator, you get a Cliffjumper out of that Mini-Bot that has the normal potential of being a Bumblebee. See where I'm going with this?"

"…we could make a devil Seeker into a little angel? I don't see a problem with that."

Topaz squeaked as Wheeljack fell flat onto the bed and made her jump into the air. "Alright that wasn't a very good comparison, but the point was that we can't teach Star to be a Seeker, so he has to hold on to the instincts he was sparked with or _he won't be a Seeker._ We walk a very thin with Star and Recall and preserving their frame type heritage. The closest thing we have to a Seeker in the Autobot forces are the Aerialbots and Skyfire, all of whom are floating somewhere out in space right now. It's unfortunate that Pretenders are so rare and most, if not all, pledged their allegiance to Megatron when the war broke out."

Bluestreak squeezed his pillow closer in thought and stared towards the bathroom where the sounds of a happy sparkling loudly splashing in the tub could be heard. Then he shifted his gaze to where Star was glaring out at him, or more like glaring at the pillow he held. "What's a Seeker in frame but not in mind?"

"A very confused individual," Wheeljack answered to the best of his ability and grinned down at Topaz when she reached over and grabbed his finger. It was a tiny movement that didn't last for longer than ten seconds, but it was big step towards resolving the trust issues she was bound to have with anyone other than her "savior." "There's a reason why all the Seekers made a unanimous alliance with Megatron."

"Or a seemingly 'unanimous' alliance," Bluestreak bitterly corrected before he carefully placed the pillow beside him and stood up.

The engineer was forced to keep the grin off his face as the younger mech attempted to casually stride across the hotel room to the bathroom. Of all the amazing things he could have programed the holoforms to do, digesting was _not_ one of them. But it wasn't his fault that Bluestreak was too curious for his own good, always trying new flavors and foods. At least the younger mech wasn't addicted to something more harmful.

A pillow falling off the bed beside him caught Wheeljack's eye, and he looked over to see the bird-like pedes of a Seekerlet slowly wiggling out of the pillows in an attempt to keep his fortress from falling. The Autobot watched with interest as he tried to stealthily tiptoe across the room and snatch up the pillow Bluestreak had left on the couch. "Star, don't you think you could leave one pillow for someone else?"

Star huffed and took the pillow anyway. He ran back to his pillows and delicately placed the one he held on the side of his fort that was incomplete. Wheeljack tapped his chin as the sparkling methodically checked the other pillows, clicking in anger when he found the gap created by the pillow that had fallen. The Seekerlet would have to be the most intriguing of the three sparklings to Wheeljack. Even after discovering Topaz's existence and Recall's frame-type, the engineer still found the Seekerlet more interesting.

He had been wondering why they hadn't had a pair of angry Seekers baring down on them to return their baby trine mate, and now he was even more curious with how this sparkling could be connected to Victoria, especially after only a week or so of knowing her. Not to mention she was _human_ and anyone currently bonded to her had been part of the group that had been "toy-fied" over ten years ago.

Then there were the things only he knew. Like the many half completed, highly advanced projects Star had made before abandoning them either from lack of materials or because he would suddenly seem very lost with what he was doing and deconstruct what he had just made to amplify his remote control toys. There were also the times where the mechling would huddle up in the corner of the barn and spend hours and numerous sheets of paper to write long complicated formulas that even the scientist had a hard time following, not because half of the scribbles were illegible but because it was a branch of science that he wasn't exceptionally fluent in…_yet_. If what he was able to make out was true, then little Star had many interesting ideas for energy conservation.

Wheeljack had originally thought the Seekerlet was just a "child genius," but now he knew that that was just wishful thinking—a way to explain away the odd behaviors that only he saw. Because really, every child tried to paint themselves at least once in their lives and drew pictures of places on Cybertron that would have fallen _vorns_ before they were even thought of but could easily be explained away as illustrations from stories he might have been told by his older trine mates.

But there was seriously no way to explain how he knew half of the formula for a synthetic Energon that hadn't even been imagined in this world and wouldn't have been known in his original world if it hadn't been for a very bright, young, and mistakenly overlooked mech from Vos that would one day become the egotistical, loud-mouthed second-in-command of the Decepticons.

But how was he going to find out if that was just a mere hunch or actual fact? Throughout his entire examination of the sparklings, there were no indications that Star was…well, who he _thought_ the Seekerlet was. If he was…_you know who_, wouldn't he have made it obvious by now? He was old enough to speak even though for some odd reason he chose not to. And as far the Autobots knew, there wasn't a missing SIC to match their missing leader.

Star had an odd spark; he could write parts of complicated formulas that Wheeljack had a tough time reading; he was bonded to Victoria through another bond that he had a pretty good idea who it belonged to. But the engineer had to figure out if his hunch was correct before spouting some unbelievable truths.

He was brought back out of his musings by a tiny squeal and an indignant chirp. He looked beside him to see that Topaz had somehow gotten a hold of one of the pillows and Star was trying to take it back without hurting her. Wheeljack sighed at them and reached over to pry the pillow from the Seekerlet's servos. "Star, you've got plenty of pillows for you fort. Let the little princess have one to play with."

Star hissed his disagreement and tugged on the pillow harder, making Topaz squawk loudly and catching the attention of Victoria still in the bathroom. "Everything okay in there?"

"Just dandy!" Wheeljack replied while sitting up to reach farther across the bed to pry Star's sharp talons from the pillow. "Star, let go of the pillow before someone gets hurt."

The mechling shook his head and pulled harder. Topaz, not to be denied of her new pillow, pulled as hard as a premature femmeling could until her frame started to buzz with an unnatural sound and cooling fans began to wheeze, but she still refused to give up the pillow. At the sound of her overtaxing systems and the realization that neither was giving up, Wheeljack put a stern expression on his face as he addressed the Seekerlet once more. "Let go of this pillow right now _Starscream_."

He honestly hadn't meant to say that name and was just as surprised as Star was. Topaz snatched the pillow away from the dazed mechling and cuddled up next to it with a satisfied, if not slightly strained, purr. Star didn't seem to mind as he stared at the engineer with disbelieving optics and a questioning chirp. The engineer stuttered at the hopefulness he saw flickering across the Seekerlet's face before sighing and leaning in close. "Is your name Starscream? Is that what you were trying to tell Vicky the first night we found you?"

A happy purr escaped Star, surprising Wheeljack by reaching out for hug. The 'Bot sighed as he returned the hug and mused over his proven hypothesis. Now how was he supposed to explain that _Starscream_ had been transported into the body of one of the sparklings they were taking care of? Or better yet, how he was going to tell Bluestreak that he might be indirectly bonded to a Seeker? _Three of them_ as a matter of fact.

Easy: he just wouldn't tell them…yet. It wasn't considered lying if he didn't say anything.

He glanced over his shoulder where he could just barely see Victoria drying down an ecstatic (and now clean) Recall while Bluestreak leaned against the sink looking a little queasy. He shifted his attention back to Star, who was looking up at him in a new and expectant light. "Alright listen here. Vicky can't know who you are right now…do you even know who you are?" Star's optics winked in slight confusion. "Yeah, it wouldn't be surprising if you lost some…okay _a lot_ of memory when your spark was transferred to this frame. Not only did you get half a new spark, but a sparkling's processor isn't nearly big enough to store half the things your old processor did, which explains how you know how to do certain things only to a point.

"But we're going to play a game! If you can make Vicky or Blue guess your name without telling them, I'll…give a whole bag of Energon goodies." Star's optics lit up with excitement at the prospect of a bag of the yummy treats that the scientist had given him on trip. "You only win if you don't tell them. They have to guess."

"What are you two planning over there?" Victoria jokingly asked as she carried Recall out of the bathroom in a big fluffy towel. Star…_scream_ immediately left him on the bed to snuggle up next to Victoria. He basked in the attention given to him by the woman. "I love you too Star…you're almost as sticky as Recall was! It's a good thing I didn't let the water out yet."

And just like that, cuddly mechling turned to hissing Seekerlet as he pushed away from the human and dove for cover in his little fort, making Wheeljack shake his head in exasperation. Seekers and their mood swings—one moment they'd be looking for cuddles and the next they could be ripping your throat out. Star's true identity just put a whole new meaning behind them. Now Wheeljack wondered if his aversion to baths was another Seeker trait or just a "Starscream trait."

Something told him that he'd waste a lot a time from now on trying to differentiate the two.

**)(**

"_Eric._ You promised to show me around the city."

"I know…but I can't."

"Why not? I can pay the bus fare if that's the problem."

"Not exactly."

"Then what?"

"Shawn grounded me."

Victoria blankly stared at her brother sitting beside her and twiddling his thumbs before suddenly bursting into laughter. Eric scowled at her but the lack of anger his scowl held showed her that he found the situation just as humorous. "Don't laugh! It's a very serious manner when Shawn grounds me."

"You've been grounded _before_?" Victoria asked with only half surprise. "By _Shawn_? How is it that you'll take Shawn's punishment more serious than you ever did dad's? I saw you sneaking out of the house every night when you were grounded in high school."

Eric seemed to wince a little in shame at the memory before casually slouching into the couch, basking in the cleanliness of his living room. "In my defense, Shawn's punishments are way worse than anything dad could ever do. The first time he 'grounded' me, he got a pair of handcuffs and cuffed me to the bed-"

"Sounds kinky."

"Hush up Jack mini-me. You didn't let me finish. He handcuffed me so I couldn't escape the endless loop of _Barney_ and _Teletubbies_ that he set up on my computer. I had nightmares of hybrid Barney and Teletubbie babies for a month after that, which is why I refuse to miss another laundry day for the rest of my life!"

Victoria bent over double as her laughter began to put hurt her stomach. She couldn't remember the last time she had laughed this hard at anything. Eric just had a way of telling stories that would make anyone laugh at the saddest tale. There was just this kind of air that surrounded her brother that made it impossible _not_ to laugh at some of the things he said. "Okay, okay! So what's your punishment for turning the apartment into a dump?"

"He said if I take one step out of the apartment before I managed to find a way to get rid of the smell, he wouldn't let me record the marathon of _Teen Titans_ that's coming on this weekend." He paused and glanced over at Victoria's expectant gaze before sighing. "Alright, if the smell isn't gone by the weekend then I'll have to streak around the block with a paper bag over my head until the cops show up, plead extreme insanity, and then run away while yelling that the government was out to get me or something. I'm telling you, Shawn gets really creative with his punishments and actually goes through with them, which makes me actually do the stuff I need to."

"You wouldn't streak around the block," Victoria said confidently before leaning forward to assess the lack of denial on her brother's part. "Seriously Eric?"

"Hey, I never got the chance to streak across the football field back in high school."

Victoria playfully shoved her brother to the other end of the couch as she laughed at his lack of restraint on his eagerness. At this point she'd believe that he didn't rid of the smell just for a reason to streak around in public. "You're so gross. But if we're not going anywhere, then what are we gonna do? Your roomie and my roomies are off reconnecting and won't be back until around four."

Eric hummed in thought while taking a sip from his can of coke. "I have a lot of color by number books in my room."

"Dare I ask why?"

"Sometimes I like to forget that I'm twenty five, but then I remember that if I was twelve again I wouldn't be the amazingly talented artist I am today. Or so handsome." He took the time to pause and stroke his hairy chin, making Victoria shake her head in response. "We could watch my impressive collection of anime. I finally managed to get a copy of _Howl's Moving Castle _on DVD. Or we can watch classic cartoons and reminisce about the good old days."

"Everything's about cartoons with you isn't it?"

"No, I've been getting into video games lately."

Victoria rolled her eyes at his obnoxious grin and held her hands up in defeat. "Alright, let's get some popcorn and watch your cartoons. But I swear, the first flash of boobs I see, I'm turning it off and breaking whatever DVD they were on."

"Not all of my cartoons involve boobies!" Eric protested on the way to the kitchen. He stopped and detoured towards the entertainment system, grabbing an armload of DVDs and refusing to let her see the boxes. "I can't help that I'm a man!"

"Maybe you should find a girlfriend," Victoria called after him as he disappeared into his room with his stash. "Then you wouldn't have to watch cartoons to satisfy your 'manly needs'."

"That isn't even funny, you freakin' perv!"

"An unfortunate side effect from living with Wheeljack for so long," she muttered to herself before standing up and heading to the kitchen herself. "While you stash your porn-"

"It's not porn!"

"-I'll make the popcorn," the brunette finished unfazed as she began to tentatively search the cabinets for said snack food. There was not telling what she would find in the cabinets of two bachelors. Fortunately she found it in the second cabinet and stuck it into the microwave, hitting the popcorn button while peeking around the corner towards the room her brother had vanished into. "Are you hiding your other porn now?"

"You know what? I think you're projecting your guilt onto me. How much 'happy material' do _you_ have hidden under _your_ bed?"

"So it's under your bed?"

Victoria proudly smirked at the curses that came from her brother after an awkward pause. It was almost cute how shy her older brother was, but then again, that had been her some odd years ago before meeting Wheeljack. Heck, that was still her when the engineer got out of hand.

The popcorn was just beginning to pop when there was a knock at the apartment door. At first Victoria ignored it, assuming that her brother would eventually answered it as she watched the bag in the microwave slowly expand, but the knocking continued, becoming more and more impatient as the microwave beeped to signal it was finished. She dragged the bag out and slowly emptied it as she stared in the general direction of the front door. "Eric! Someone's at the door."

There was no response from her brother, so she shrugged, figuring that he was too far under his bed rearranging his stash that he couldn't hear, and headed to the door with the bowl of popcorn in her hand and a handful of it halfway to her mouth. It was probably just one of her brother's neighbors and the demanding knocking was getting on her nerves, not to mention it seemed a little rude to go from politely knocking to all but trying to pound the door down in under two minutes.

She chewed on her mouthful of popcorn as she unlocked the door and opened it, blinking in surprise when a fist stopped mere inches from her nose. There was a nervous chuckle as the fist withdrew, and without the immediate "threat" filling her vision, she was able to examine the two gentlemen behind the impatient knocking. They both wore pristine suits, the only difference between the two potential look-a-likes being the different colors and designs of their ties, and it was obvious that the tanner of the two, with the way he stood in front of the balding man and had an almost politic grin on his face, was the one in charge.

"Good afternoon young lady," he courteously said, and Victoria had the urge to raise an eyebrow at his forced politeness. "Is your…boyfriend in?"

Now Victoria _did_ raise a suspicious eyebrow as she placed her bowl of popcorn on her hip. "I don't have a boyfriend."

It was funny to watch the man be slightly thrown off before that fake grin reappeared. "My apologies. I'm looking for a-" he paused to whip out a notepad from his pocket and flip through it to the appropriate page. "Eric Anderson. The roster downstairs has him living in this apartment with his…roommate"

"Why do you need my brother?" Victoria asked in a slightly protective manner. It was obvious that these weren't any of her brother's friends or they would have been aware of Eric's lack of romantic relationships and he would have mentioned someone planning on coming by today. Not to mention she didn't particularly like the small sneer that crossed his face when he mentioned his "roommate."

"I'm afraid I can't discuss that with you," he said offhandedly as he stuck his head past her to glance around apartment. "Is he here at the moment?"

Victoria scowled at his rudeness and opened her mouth to tell him to…well, go away in a very impolite manner, when she noticed the bulky device his friend carried. Her brows furrowed at the familiar device, and she attempted to figure out where she had seen it before. "What's that?"

"This?" the other man said as he pointed to it. "It's uh…it's just a thing…that tests, uh…stuff."

"Stuff? Well aren't you a fountain of information."

"Enough with the chitchat," the first man said as his patience and polite manner finally broke. "Is Eric Anderson here or not?"

"What if he's not?"

"Then our business here-"

"Vicky! Look at what I found under my bed!" Eric yelled in excitement as he ran down the hallway with a box above his head. "I haven't played _Clue_ in like _forever._ We gotta play before we watch a movie, _please_?"

"Ah Mr. Anderson," the man said in a new upbeat tone as he all but shoved past Victoria to get into the apartment. The balding man looked slightly apologetic as he shuffled past her. She glared at them both before noticing her brother's sudden lack of eagerness and deep frown. "Sorry to intrude, but I was hoping to have a few words with you about your _roommate._"

Eric glanced at the two men standing in the entrance of his apartment and glanced at his sister standing behind them with the door still wide open. "I'm sorry, who exactly are you?"

"How rude of me!" The leader of the duo whipped out a black holder from the inside pocket of his jacket, flipping it open to display the badge inside. "I'm Agent Seymour Simmons with the government. Now if you wouldn't mind, I have a couple of questions to ask about your 'roommate'."

* * *

**AN:** Gah S7, you come in a ruin everything! Now Eric will never be able to play _Clue_ D: I'm hoping to not take nearly as long with the next chapter because I have a pretty definite outline for what I plan to have in it, but, again, finals are starting this week (I think; my college always has weird schedules for finals), so I might not have much time to write. I'm really eager to get started on it as soon as possible though because we got some Skywarp, TC, and Rumble action planned (you didn't think I could forget them, did you?) ;)


	14. Family Discussions

_**AN:**_ Sorry about the slight delay! I had every intention on posting earlier, but my computer decided to work against me this week and crashed about seven times before I could figure out what the problem was yesterday. So I lost about half of the chapter because I lacked the forethought to save it before it crashed the first time, which is probably the reason why this chapter is shorter than previous ones :P But the problem has been solved, so no more crashes :D

Small warning for slight OOCness :)

_"Thinking"__  
__:Comm. Talk:__  
_**~Bond Speech~**

Time Units  
Vorn: ~83 years

* * *

A New Version of Reality

Chapter Twelve

Family Discussions

**Honesty is the first chapter of the book wisdom. ― Thomas Jefferson**

* * *

Awkward wasn't nearly a strong enough word to describe the current situation. Victoria, while not entirely part of the trio now sitting in the living room staring at each other, could prominently feel the tension between her brother and the strangers from where she sat at the kitchen table. When she had tried to follow them into the adjacent room Eric had pointedly ordered her to his bedroom, which she argued with until he had given in and allowed her to stay in the kitchen where she could hear but not see.

Basically she was treated like a little child and left to pout by herself while the "adults" conducted their business.

"Look, I know there might have been a lot of phone calls to the local precinct," Eric started, attempting to break the awkwardness in the room by nervously laughing, "but I assure you they're all lies. If it's not that, then I don't know what Shawn did. He paid off all his gambling debts years ago and been clean ever since then…as far as I know."

"Gambling?" questioned the obnoxious leader, or _Agent_ Simmons as he had shown off. "How unsurprising. Do some slots in Vegas, get rich quick, and disappear without a trace, taking the hard earned cash of the people of our good planet."

"What?"

"But that's not why we're here," Simmons continued as if he hadn't heard Eric confused question. "I'm here to talk more about your 'roommate' in general."

Victoria attempted to scoot her chair closer to the living room but stopped at the loud scraping against the linoleum floor. Simmons…that name. Was it possible he was _that_ Simmons—the one that James mentioned in his rants? If he was then that would explain his intense interest in Smokescreen. From what James said during his small bouts of sanity, Sector 7 had ways of discovering Cybertronian identities.

Had Smokescreen done something to draw their attention?

"What about him?" Eric asked with heavy suspicion.

There was a pause, the sound of shuffling paper, and a clearing of a throat until finally the second agent asked, "How long have you been acquainted with Shawn Wright?"

There was another pause and Victoria knew her brother well enough to picture him counting the years off on his fingers. "Let's see…I was…thirteen when we first met, so…twelve years maybe? Yep, Shawn moved in the house across from ours twelve years ago, and we've been friends ever since."

More papers were shuffled around, and someone sighed in annoyance. "Forget the interview questions Banachek prepared. Has your 'roommate' ever done anything suspicious? Disappeared for several days without a word; acted in a funny, _alien_ like way; or shown an intense interest in electronics?"

Even Victoria was blinking at the seemingly random and stupid questions. Is this how Sector 7 found a Transformer? If so, then they weren't very good at it.

"The only time Shawn's ever 'disappeared' for days are for psychology conventions or stuff like that," Eric tiredly answered as if he just wanted them to leave now. "A funny alien like way? You ask the right person and _I _act in a funny alien like way. And who doesn't have an intense interest in electronics nowadays except really old people?"

"You said you met Wright when you were thirteen," the second agent hurriedly restated as if it to keep his fellow agent from responding to Eric. "Does this mean you witnessed him…growing up?"

Another paused reigned throughout the apparent, but this one was different from the previous awkward ones. This one held a sense of anger within it. "That's enough. I let you guys in because you legitimately looked like you work for the government, but now it's obvious that this either a joke or an attempt to make me look stupid. Yes, I saw Shawn 'growing up.' People tend to do that as they age. And before you ask, Shawn is a vegetarian. Is that reasons for being suspicious? Or would you classify that as 'funny alien like behavior'? How about his interest in the human mind? If he were an alien that would be a good subject to get a Bachelor's degree in. Are you gonna question that too?"

"Hey, don't get an attitude with me kid!"

"I'm not even taking you serious enough to get an attitude with."

Victoria yelped as she suddenly fell out of her chair; she had been so focused on the conversation that she hadn't realized her body had been slowly leaning over in an attempt to see the three men. The sound of her fall created another brief period of silence as she attempted to scramble back into the chair before her brother decided to investigate.

"I think you should leave now," Eric finally said. "If you want some kind of dirt on my best friend then I suggest you look somewhere else because I'm not about to gossip about him. And since you didn't come in demanding his arrest or something, I'm guessing you don't really have a reason for taking him in for proper questioning."

"Well aren't you a smart aleck," Agent Simmons commented. Victoria stood from the chair she had just sat in when he stepped into her field of vision. She glared at the quick head-to-toe inspection he gave her. "And what about you Miss Sarcasm? You and your bowl of popcorn look oddly suspicious."

The woman unconsciously reached behind her to shield said bowl of popcorn before straightening her spine and meeting his gaze straight on. "Yes, the popcorn is the leader of a local terrorist group and we were planning on using the cloned and mutated kernels of its unpoped self to increase the calorie intake of the country's population, one mutated bowl of popcorn at a time. The blender's part of the conspiracy as well—you wanna question it before you leave?"

He stared at her with hard dark brown eyes before gesturing with two fingers between his eyes and hers. "I've got my eye on you. Mark my words—I've got eyes and ears _everywhere. _You so much as sneeze and I'll know."

"I should file a complaint for stalking then," Victoria retaliated even as her hands minutely shook. She would be the first to admit that confrontations like this with total strangers were not her forte. "Don't you and your lackey have parking tickets to hand out?"

Simmons repeated the gesture before motioning for a stuttering Agent Not-Important-Enough-To-Be-Introduced to follow him out the door that Eric practically shoved them through. The balding man fumbled with the device still slung over his shoulder and waved the wand around the entrance. The device was beeping like crazy when Eric slammed the door shut.

Her brother sighed in relief and turned back to her, missing the obvious worry she now exuded. "I've gotta admit, that was disappointing. Whenever Shawn's in the mood to start a pranking war he's way more creative than _that._ I don't even think I could come up with a retaliation to that poor attempt. Meh, whatever. Let's play _Clue_!"

Eric picked up the box he had previously abandoned and rattled the contents of it with an innocently suggestive grin in her direction. The grin slipped away when he finally noticed Victoria's worried expression. "What's wrong? If you're worried about those cop-wannabes, then don't be. Shawn probably paid them to come up and flash their fake badges."

"It isn't that." Victoria paused and scrunched her nose as if the next part pained her to admit. "Believe it or not I'm actually worried about Shawn." She glared when all her brother did was shamelessly gawk at her. "What?"

"You're worried about _Shawn_?" he repeated in disbelief before broadly grinning. "I never thought I'd see the day when you finally start to like my best friend."

"Whoa now, worry and like are two completely different things," Victoria argued, absently moving to sit on the couch and watching her brother unpack his board game. "What if this wasn't a little prank? I mean, isn't he a little more creative than that? And when did he have time to set it up? You said he's been away at a conference for the past week, and he's been with the others all day. Unless he was making calls at midnight last night, I don't think Shawn's been planning a prank."

Eric pursed his lips in thought as he placed three cards in the "secret envelope" before passing out the correct amount of cards to each of them. "Maybe you're right. You know now that I think about it, I swear I saw that bald guy yesterday after you left, waving around that thing he had. It was weird." He silently, but seriously, stared at his cards before looking up and noticing his sister's flat look. "What?"

"You've seen one of them before and didn't think to mention it?"

"I just remembered! Sorry if I've been busy with other things to magically remember individual crazy people on the streets."

Victoria sighed as her brother huffed and rolled the die that came with the game. "I need to call Jack right quick. Let me use your cellphone."

"I can't."

"Why?"

"We buried it about a month ago." Eric smiled in response to Victoria's continuous stare. "It had a very lovely funeral, and I make sure to visit and leave flowers every weekend."

The brunette opened her mouth to respond before closing it and shaking her head. "I don't even wanna know. Let me use your landline then."

"Yeah...we don't have a homephone." His smile became impossibly angelic at Victoria's almost face-palm. "I threw our phone out the window and almost got arrested for assault before Shawn managed to convince the cop that owned the cruiser that the phone broke the windshield of that I was mentally unstable, which apparently wasn't very hard at the time. That's why I'm not allowed to paint with my bedroom door closed anymore."

"I seriously wonder about you," Victoria said under her breath. She shook her head when her brother hummed in question, having missed her muttered words, and stood from the couch. "Then we have to go back to the hotel room and talk to him in person."

"But what about our game?" Eric whined in honest disappointment.

"You are aware that _Clue_ requires a minimum of three players, right?" Eric looked at her with wide grey eyes before staring down at the game like it had betrayed him in the most awful way. Victoria rolled her eyes at him and patted his head in mock comfort. "It's not the end of the world because you can't play _Clue._ Now, be a good brother and go pack your essentials so we can leave."

"It is in my world." He paused to exaggeratingly sniff before processing her order. "Wait, why do I need to 'pack my essentials'? It's not like going to your hotel room warrants an overnight stay."

Victoria bit her lip as her previous worry returned and grabbed Eric's hand to pull him off the couch. "Because if what I'm worrying about turns out to be true, then you might not be coming back for a while."

"Vi, what is going on?" Eric questioned as he was shoved down the hallway towards his room. "Seriously, you've been on edge since those dudes showed up."

"Eric, there's a lot of stuff you don't know." Victoria frowned when her brother dug his heels into the carpet and refused to budge under her shoves. She sighed when he turned around and entered "Serious Brother Mode": serious frown in place, eyes scrunched to maximize scrutiny, and hands on his hips. "Honestly you were never meant to find out either. But Smokescreen's gone and done something to draw unwanted attention, so not telling you might not be a choice anymore."

"_What are you talking about?_ And who's 'Smokescreen'? What unwanted attention? You can't tell me those guys were actually _legit_ after those stupid questions they asked."

Victoria sighed again and gently nudged him towards his room again. "Once we get to the hotel I _promise_ to tell you what's going on. But right now we have to leave before that Simmons guy finds a reason to come back and drag us away."

Eric critically stared at her before snorting and moving on his own freewill. "Fine, but if this is a prank then it seriously sucks."

"I wish it was," Victoria mumbled to herself as her brother vanished from her sight. She paced back into the living room for a distraction and found her way over to the window to stare out at the streets below. Two figures caught her attention, and she watched as Simmons and his companion shared a brief conversation, which ended with Simmons meaningfully pointing up at the building in the general direction of Eric's apartment and the other agent vigorously nodding and saluting as Simmons walked away. He then turned to vigilantly watch the building, ignoring the strange looks he received by the few people walking past him.

The woman couldn't help but glare back at him.

**)(**

Skywarp liked to believe he was a fairly sane mech…well, saner than most of the Decepticons he had met in recent vorns. Now that he stopped to think about it, that was actually a very sad truth—_he_ was currently the sanest mech around. It wasn't very often he could say that with confidence, especially when Thundercracker was around. His brother was hands down the sanest of their trine—maybe even the sanest Seeker in the entirety of the Decepticon army!—but that didn't seem to be the case at the moment.

No, at this moment he was the dumbest mech Skywarp had ever met.

"Hey slagger! If you keep thinkin' so hard ya might short circuit you're processer."

Skywarp transitioned his glare from the cyan Seeker scanning the deserted area they had landed in to the red and black accented form climbing up the rocky embankment to sit next to him. Rumble smirked up at the Seeker as he made himself comfortable on one of the rocks next to him. "Shut up you little turd."

"Bite me, butt-muncher."

"Younglings," Thundercracker sarcastically droned as he tapped his sharp talons against the simple scanner he had…_borrowed_ from Shockwave's ship. "Behave yourselves."

Both mechs childishly stuck their glossa out at the "mature" one of the group. This scenario wasn't new to them, having repeated it dozens of times since leaving the country the humans called "Ukraine". Every time they landed Thundercracker would start sweeping the area for whatever the frag Shockwave had them looking for while Skywarp and Rumble would sit off to the side and exchange insults, plot ways to drive other mechs insane, or just make random conversation. It had been fun to explain to a confused Thundercracker how exactly they had gotten onto the topic of who was better: Edward or Jacob.

Human pop culture was a funny thing and mind-numbingly entertaining to pointlessly argue over.

However, it _did_ keep Skywarp entertained while they traversed the eastern countries. He hadn't even minded the slight detour they had taken to briefly meet up with Blackout and Scorponok in the Middle East. Skywarp had only paid them attention long enough to know that they were scouting for an "appropriate human base to raid information from". After that he hadn't really cared and had flown off to aimlessly glide around while he waited for Thundercracker and Rumble to politely (in TC's case, not Rumble's) wrap up the conversation and they could begin their search for Starscream again.

Heck, he'd even enjoyed the flight over the ocean. It took a while to for the black and purple Seeker to convince Thundercracker to abandon his methodical search along the northern part of Africa (TC was determined to stop every thousand miles or so to search for whatever the frag Shockwave had them searching), but eventually Rumble had helped gang up on the poor Seeker and they were zooming over the Atlantic Ocean to the "United States". Skywarp had enjoyed flying close enough to the surface of the water to create a wall on either side of him. As an added bonus he had freaked out a boat of humans on the way!

Not that Thundercracker had seen the joy in that. No, all he had done was tell Skywarp how immature he was being before going back to privately chatting with Rumble, who was now loyally kept in in the older Seeker's hold most of the time. Skywarp wasn't jealous of the former Cassette—no, he understood the need for the mech to stay in TC's hold. It was beyond their control at their moment.

His problem lay with his brother.

Thundercracker…he just wanted to bash the mech's helm against something hard so that he_ would start listening! _They didn't _need_ to follow Shockwave's orders anymore; the scientist was miles away now and wouldn't know any better. And when they found Starscream they wouldn't need to worry about Shockwave sending out someone to hunt them down. Their trine was an unstoppable force when whole. Why else would Megatron name them the _Command Trine _or—_or _—put their trine leader as _Air Commander and SIC_?

And no, it was not because they were the only Seekers to make it to the meeting that decided those positions on time!

But that wasn't even what the point. The point was that Thundercracker was completely ignoring the "Starscream Topic," as Rumble mockingly named it. Anytime Skywarp brought it up he'd be strategically maneuvered to another topic, and he _knew_ it was happening despite the older Seeker's belief that he didn't. It was just coming to a point where his anger was beginning to outweigh his annoyance.

"Alright," Thundercracker said, breaking the abnormal silence that fallen over the group as he subspaced the scanner. "I'm picking up on some faint readings, so let's-"

"I need to talk to you." Thundercracker's optics winked in confusion as Skywarp stood from the embankment with a pointed look at Rumble. "_Alone_."

"Fine, I see how it is," Rumble complained, though he didn't seem to have a real problem with climbing up the rest of the rocks to the tree line of the forest they were currently in. "The parents gotta have a chitchat while the kid remains oblivious. You just remember that it's the kid that always suffers the breakup."

"Yeah yeah," Skywarp droned as the symbiot vanished. His optics flickered back to regard the older Seeker who almost blankly stared back at him. "TC this has gone on long enough."

"And it has to continue," Thundercracker interrupted, making Skywarp flex his wings and scowl in annoyance. "I know you don't like being Shockwave's 'lackey', but even with distance between us he has more power. If he picks up on us trying to betray him, then it's one offhand remark to Soundwave and we become the Decepticon's number one fugitives. You know that what Decepticons do to Autobots is _nothing_ compared to what they do to deserters."

Skywarp's wings flickered in acknowledgement as he _did_ now. After all, once upon a time he had taken part in the malicious punishments. But that was back when soldiers had begun to flee their dying planet and Megatron had ordered specific groups of Decepticons to dish the punishment out. _"To test your loyalty,"_ Starscream had said as he emotionlessly ordered his trine mates to have the bonds of another trine severed because one of the wings had attempted to flee.

That had left a bad taste in Skywarp's mouth as he had watched Hook brutally sever the bonds while he and Thundercracker had held down the thrashing mech. Then watching Starscream force the other two to bond with a trineless Seeker in order for them to continue to have a purpose in Megatron's optics…that was the day Skywarp had stopped getting vindictive joy out of seeing deserters suffer.

"Yeah, but who could they order to track us down? Blackout? Barricade? _Laserbeak?_ Honestly the only one I think would have a chance of taking us both down is Soundwave, and he's not about to chase us around this planet. It's like I've been trying to tell you. With Starscream our trine will be complete and as strong as it was before!"

Thundercracker only scowled at Skywarp's excitement. "And then you think our problems will magically vanish? Shockwave will still make us look like deserters to save his own aft, but if we find what was taken then maybe—_maybe_—we can get out of this unscathed by making a deal. His project in exchange for us bowing out and keeping our mouths shut. Everyone wins."

"What about 'Screamer? Shockwave's gonna want some kind of revenge for what that rat faced idiot did before 'Screamer came back." Skywarp sighed at the deep frown that appeared on his trine brother's face. "TC, I'm not talking about deserting the cause or anything. We're still 'Cons, but I just want our 'Screamer back. I've actually missed him _a lot_, and I know he's _here,_ somewhere on this mudball. I just wanna know why you're trying so fragging hard to ignore that!"

Instead of bristling at the accusation like Skywarp thought he would, Thundercracker slumped in…defeat? Skywarp stared with bright ruby optics as the cyan Seeker carefully approached him and gently placed two servos on his shoulders. "TC…you're creeping me out."

"I'm sorry."

"That doesn't help…seriously stop."

A scowl flickered across Thundercracker's feature, making Skywarp surprisingly feel better. He hated when Thundercracker got too emotional; the older Seeker just didn't get emotional unless something _really _serious happened. Like death…or someone had taped over his soap operas.

(It actually wasn't a very funny manner. Skywarp remembered the day that TC came home to find that he had accidently taped over the other Seeker's collection of _All My Younglings _episodes. Starscream's everyday rants were nothing compared to what Thundercracker had dished out that day.)

"Skywarp I'm trying to be serious," Thundercracker growled before regaining his morose air. "There's…there's something I should have told you, and I realize that now. I just thought that by keeping it a secret for a little while would help you. I can't believe I'm actually saying this, but Rumble was right all along."

"Right about what? You're seriously freaking me out. If I'd know you were gonna get like this then I would've stayed quiet."

Thundercracker sighed. "Skywarp…we were wrong. Our Starscream isn't here. Maybe we were wishing so hard for him to be here that we thought we felt something."

Skywarp sharply frowned at the remorse Seeker still gripping his shoulders. How…how could Thundercracker deny the existence of their brother? They'd been waiting for so long for Starscream to come back to them, and they had both felt him in the bond on Shockwave's ship. "What are you talking about? Of course he's here! Can't you feel him?"

"He isn't here," Thundercracker repeated a little harshly then he meant to. "I don't feel anything."

"That's because you're focusing so much on blocking everything out! You're blocking him so much that it's even starting to affect my connection with him. If you just opened up we could-"

"I _saw _him Skywarp!"

Skywarp frowned as Thundercracker flinched at his unplanned and poorly executed confession. "What are you talking about? We haven't seen Starscream since landing."

"You haven't," the mech confessed before taking a resigned breath. "But I have. The first day we landed and Shockwave sent us to those coordinates…he was there, searching for whatever he had stolen. But Skywarp you have to understand, that wasn't _our_ Starscream. Even Rumble could tell-"

"Wait a minute," Skywarp interrupted with a scowl that clearly displayed the anger just boiling under the surface. "That little pit-spawned _Cassette_ knew about this, but you didn't even think to tell _me_, your own fragging trine mate?"

"It wasn't like that," Thundercracker hissed as Skywarp pointedly put distance between them, wings tips nearly connecting as they tensed with hostility. "I was only doing it to help you!"

"How? Because all it's doing is making me really, really, _really_ mad. Why would you lie about something like that?"

"I didn't want you to get hurt 'Warp. I thought…I thought that if you knew then you might be able to bounce back from the disappointment this time."

_:Um, uh. Thundercracker?:_

_:Not right now Rumble.:_

Thundercracker blocked the insistent comm. link ping and focused on Skywarp, who was scowling with intense anger now. "So you're keeping secrets from me now? What is _wrong_ with you Thundercracker? You know what? This isn't even about me! This is all about your own slagging denial. You've been this way since we woke up: pretending everything's all hunky-dory and being a good little soldier. Like there wasn't a gaping hole where our brother was supposed to be. Now you can't even take the time to notice he's back!"

Now it was Thundercracker's turn to bristle in anger, and he reached forward to grip one of Skywarp's wings like a wayward Seekerlet. He ignored the yelp of pain that came from the smaller Seeker as he yanked him closer. "Don't. You. _Dare_. Insinuate that I don't _care! _I searched endlessly for a way to find him while we were on Cybertron—I did everything I could. I even attempted to cross enemy lines to find that nutty engineer to bring him back. And what were you doing? Getting fracking _tanked_ and trying to forget! I had to take care of you too and prove that you weren't just a slagging heap of scrap metal to Megatron. Yes, I have accepted that our brother may have been forever lost. But don't you _ever_ say that I don't care!"

Thundercracker's voice had a static edge to it as he came to an end, excessively venting to cool down his overheated systems. Skywarp stared back with bright unreadable optics before they dimmed to a setting that seemed unnatural for him. "So I've been a burden to you, huh?"

"No that's not-" Thundercracker cursed as the purple and black mech yanked himself out of the older Seeker's grasp and quickly put more distance between them. "Skywarp."

"I haven't given up," Skywarp interrupted, and a new glint of determination brightened his ruby optics. "I know he's out there, _right now,_ and I'm gonna find him. And you're wrong—you haven't done everything you could to find him. And it's so obvious that if it were an Autobot, it'd kick you in the face."

"Skywarp!" Thundercracker shouted as Skywarp suddenly vanished with a near inaudible _"Pop!"_ and flash of light. The Seeker angrily cursed while spinning around, frantically searching his now AWOL brother. The area was completely empty save for him. "Skywarp!"

_:Thundercracker! Needyourhelppleasecomepleasecomepleasehurryplease- :_

The sound of Rumble frantically yelling into Thundercracker's comm. link sent the already tensed Seeker into immediate action. He was like a compressed spring that had been suddenly released and launched into the air, transforming mid-jump and blasting off into the direction of Rumble's energy signature. There was nothing he could do about Skywarp at the moment; his younger trine mate wasn't responding to comm. link hails and blocking him through the bond, and there was no telling where his warping had sent him to. But Rumble was pleading for help, something he'd never heard the tiny mech do, and Thundercracker vaguely felt that it was his current obligation to keep the symbiot safe in the absence of Soundwave.

Plus, it held a valuable opportunity for Soundwave to pay him back whenever the telepath showed up.

Thundercracker followed the signature to another clearing a good ten miles away from where they had been, leaving the Seeker mildly astonished by how far Rumble had wandered off in such a brief period of time. Now he understood why Soundwave had kept such a close optic on his Cassettes—when they wandered off, they _seriously_ wandered off. It took a moment to get over his mild shock and realize that Rumble wasn't alone.

A dozen or so humans were milling around the area, half surrounding the crater at the epicenter of the clearing and recording data while the other half surrounded an injured Rumble, who hissed and cursed them in Cybertronian whilst they kept their weapons firmly trained on him. A stray thought in the back of Thundercracker's processor found it odd that all the humans were covered head-to-toe in black, but that didn't matter when one of the humans reached out to poke the tiny mech injured leg strut with a baton that emitted a current of electricity that caused him to yelp and twitch in pain.

None of the humans knew what do when an enormous mass suddenly fell from the sky, weapons humming to start and large clawed servo sweeping the area and sending the humans surrounding Rumble flying through the air with cries of terror. The symbiot emitted a strange series of beeps and clicks as the Seeker scooped him up and instinctively shifted him to inside the hold before jumping into the air, transforming, and leaving a devastating sonic boom in his wake as he tore off through the air.

Both of the mechs were quiet as Thundercracker picked a random direction to drift in. Rumble was the first to speak. _:You'd make one hell of a guardian, you know that?:_

_:Shut up.:_

_:Naw, I'm serious! I've only seen one other mech act so quickly, and that was the Boss. Heck, why aint you a guardian yet?:_

_:Sorry if Skywarp and Starscream are enough for me. I don't need a legitimate youngling running around my pedes.:_

He heard Rumble snort over the link and _felt_ the mech shifting around in his hold. Thundercracker didn't care how long he'd have to carry the symbiot around; no amount of time would make that feeling okay. _:How did you get caught by a group of _humans?:

All humor seemed to flee as the mech inside him tensed and emitted waves of embarrassment. _:I didn't get caught! I'm a certified spy—one o' the best in the fragging 'Con army. No human can catch me…I…:_

_:What?:_ Thundercracker questioned when Rumble trailed off in a unintelligible mumble. _:It sounds to me that you just don't want to fess up to getting caught by a couple of humans.:_

_:I stepped into a slagging pothole!: _Rumble finally admitted with a huff. _:Happy? I. Stepped. Into a fragging pothole. And twisted my ankle strut. Now it's bent in an odd way…:_

The Seeker transformed and landed in an empty field, the ground slightly quaking beneath him. Vermillion optics briefly scanned the area before opening his chassis to extract his embarrassed passenger. Rumble huffed as he was forced to sit in the palm of the huge clawed servo and yelped when the tip of a claw from the other servo poked his tiny, twisted pede. "What the frag man? Don't touch it! It fragging hurts."

"Don't be such a sparkling," Thundercracker muttered as he pinched the thin strip of metal that served as Rumble's leg strut. The Cassette yelped and began to emit the same new sounds he had earlier. "The joint's just been dislocated…"

"Fragging slag-maker pit-spawned SOB!" Rumble shouted as the ball joint was forced back into place, and he dramatically fell back to hug the aching leg to his chassis. "A little warning next time fragger!"

Thundercracker snorted and twisted his servo to dump the symbiot onto the ground with little concern. If Rumble was well enough to curse him then he was well enough not to be coddled. The Seeker shook his helm to get rid of the urge to "coddle." What was going on with him? "Why did you even wander off so far?"

"What? You just put me through unimaginable pain and now you're complaining about me giving you and 'Warp space? Does nothing make you featherbrained slaggers happy?" Rumble rubbed his aching ankle while glancing around the barren field. "Where's the Warpster anyways? Is he back there dealing with those humans? 'Cause if he is, tell 'im to really mess up the guy that kept shocking me."

"You're getting too attached," Thundercracker deflected as he clumsily sat down, adjusting his legs to a more comfortable position in front of him. "Since when do you call Skywarp 'Warpster'? Or plead for help instead of taking care of yourself?"

The symbiot stared up at the Seeker with bright red optics, leaving Thundercracker feeling vaguely uncomfortable, before he moved into a similar sitting position: legs bent up in front of him and spindly arms resting on top of sharp knees. "So he's flown the coop, huh?"

Thundercracker scowled for a moment before grunting an affirmation. "As much as it pains me to say this, you were right. I might have even made things worse than they originally were."

The smaller Decepticon made a noise of agreement. "At least there's a chance of him comin' back. Skywarp sorta depended on you—Frenz' rarely even spoke to me."

They were silent, quietly absorbing their new state of their group, until Thundercracker frowned down at the symbiot. "Stop trying to make me feel bad for you."

"I can't help it. It comes with the territory of being cute."

"You are _not_ 'cute'."

"Yes, I am. I'm small which automatically makes me cute. Ask any organic femme."

"You're delusional, that's what you are," Thundercracker countered as he stood, stretching his limbs while his armor faintly clinked together. He fluttered his wings in response to the breeze before extending his servo to Rumble. "I'll report to Shockwave, and then we're going to figure out what those humans were up to. I doubt it's a coincidence that they're in the same area as the first traces of Cybertronian life we've stumbled across are. On top of that, I'm willing to bet that an off course pod could create the same crater as the one we just saw."

"What about Skywarp?"

Thundercracker stared at him with icy optics and jostled him into the cramped hold. "I'd only make it worse by chasing after him."

Rumble remained silent once he was settled, and the Seeker activated his transformation protocols before flying back in the direction they had come from. He decided to simply ignore the dull throb from his spark at the lack of activity from either end of his trine bond.

**)(**

Eric groaned and lifted his arm to block out the light that attempted to penetrate his eyelids. It wasn't completely unpleasant, but he was the type of person that needed total darkness in order to get a good night sleep, which usually meant he didn't take naps in the afternoon…so what was he doing lying on what he suspected was a couch and regaining consciousness? And why did it feel like there were a ton of bricks on chest?

"Is he waking up?"

"Looks like it. I can't believe he just fainted like that! The whole time I've known him, I've never seen him go down like that. He can watch things like _Saw _or _Dead Alive_ and not even flinch. Though, I will admit that Star is pretty horrifying when he wants to be. Huh, maybe he did have a good reason to faint."

There was a hiss from the other side of the room and a slap and yelp right beside his head. Eric gingerly opened his eyes, squinting at the light, and glanced to his immediate left. His sister was knelt down on the flood beside him and glaring at Blake, who was rubbing the back of his blond head. That accounted for the slap and yelp he had heard. Just behind them stood Shawn, hands in his pockets and looking as blasé as usual. Eric couldn't remember a specific time when Shawn ever looked phased by anything. And of course, he could hear Jack being…Uncle Jack on the other side of the room, badly singing an old nursery rhyme with his voice fluctuating from high to low pitches without warning.

The man rubbed his forehead as he tried to remember how exactly he had gotten there. Well…he had left his apartment with Victoria and hopped on a bus. Then she had chosen random places to get off and head to another bus, which Eric complained about until he noticed that they were being followed by one of the guys that had been in his apartment earlier. He supposed that was when he stopped believing that it was a simple prank, if not that point in time then when the guy kept following them despite how hard they made it for him.

When they finally lost him in the subway, they had come back up to grab a taxi to the hotel they were staying in. Eric remembered actually freaking out when he realized they were rooming at the Ritz-Carlton. Victoria kept telling him to shut up and stop embarrassing her (as by then everyone in the lobby had been staring their way), so Eric had, of course, continued to "freak out". After all, it had become a way to annoy his little sister and no respecting big brother would pass up that opportunity.

They got into the elevator, Eric made a point of bragging to one of the occupants that his sister was currently in the _Presidential Suite,_ Victoria had scowled at him for being himself, they made it to the room…and then everything sort of went black. And he found himself laying here! Well that was a nice and highly pointless trip down memory lane.

"Are you okay Ricky?" Victoria softly asked. Eric felt his eyebrows shoot up at the sound of nickname. He hadn't heard his sister use that name since their grandpa had passed away. It had been him who had come up with their nicknames: Ricky and Vicky. It was something serious for her to fall back on it. "You hit your head pretty hard this time."

So that explained the dull throb in the back of his head. Eh, he'd had worse. "What happened? The last thing I remember was getting of the elevator."

They all exchanged a look that he didn't understand before Shawn focused on him. "Years of studying it and the human mind is still able to surprise me. He must be experiencing some level of denial in order to make sense of what he's seen."

"Shawn," Eric sighed in exasperation and sleepily rubbed his eyes. "Man, I told you not to psychoanalyze me out loud."

The man shrugged and looked down at Victoria, as if for some sort guidance on what should be done next. Eric felt like had stepped into the Twilight Zone as he watched his best friend and sister soundlessly communicate with each other while Blake stared at them both with his wide blue eyes. This had to be some kind of sign for the Apocalypse or something; first Vicky was worrying about Shawn and then they were communicating with each other without insults of any kind?

If it wasn't a sign then it sure as heck needed to be.

"What is going on?" Eric questioned with unease, glancing back and forth between the two with wide grey eyes. "You two never get along."

"That's because your sister has possessiveness issues," Shawn quickly answered without a second glance at the now glaring woman. "But that isn't the main issue right now. Eric, do you remember the men that came by the apartment earlier?"

"Yeah. They asked stupid questions about you and then one tried to follow us here."

"First and foremost, I apologize for dragging you into this. At this point I am unaware of what I did to draw their attention, but I didn't expect them to approach you alone."

"Are you indebted with some kind of gang?" Eric interrupted, lifting his head to glare at his roommate. He still couldn't move due to the weight on his chest. "Because I swear, if you did that again-"

"Again?" Victoria turned to glare at the man as well. "Your stupid gambling has put my brother in danger before?"

"We're getting off topic," Shawn protested while carelessly waving away the accusations. "If your suspicions are correct then this organization could be in the lobby as we speak. They've tracked down my human alias and are likely to connect it with Wheeljack and Bluestreak's. Your brother needs to hear this before he's blindsided once more."

"What are you talking about?" Eric shouted, making the other three snap their heads toward him and a screech sound from the other side of the room. "And what is this on…my…please tell me this kid's not yours."

"Technically he is," Victoria hedged as Eric stared down at the little redhead sleepily curled on his chest. "But there's more behind the story than that."

"That story better not involve 'it was a one night mistake' or something worse. Either way, I have a bastard to track down for impregnating my _little sister_ without putting a ring on her finger first."

"Oh we would've done that a _long_ time ago," Jack piped in from where Eric couldn't see him. "But that's not the case here. Her new kids kinda fell from the sky one night. Literally."

"What-" Eric stopped as Blake shifted to the side just enough for him to see the last man lying on one of the beds. He gaped at the sight of a human sized _robot_ sitting at the table beside the bed and furiously scribbling on a piece of paper. "What the hell is that?"

"One of the three reasons why we can't stick around and see what those men may or may not want with Smokescreen," Victoria answered while placing a comforting hand on her brother's shoulder. "Eric, at the risk of sounding morbidly cliché, our former neighbors are a little more than meets the eye, and we've decided that it's time you learn the truth."

The room was silent before Blake suddenly started to snicker. "That sounded so bad!"

Victoria was too busy punching the man in the arm to notice the little boy wiggling around on her brother's chest, but Eric stared wide eyed and at full attention as the redhead shifted and looked up at him with luminescent blue eyes. The child happily grinned, prompting a nervous smile from the man, before he paused and released a huge yawn. Eric's smile instantly fell the skin of the child began to ripple and break apart at the corner of his yawning lips. By the time the yawn had passed, there was a mechanical being sitting on his chest and eagerly smiling and chirping.

Smokescreen hummed as he watched his human roommate's eyes roll up into his head and drop his head onto the arm of the couch in a dead faint. "For some reason I always imagined this to be an easier process. This is the fourth time he's fainted."

"At this rate it could be days before we even get him adjusted to the sparklings, let alone you guys," Victoria complained as Bluestreak continued to uncontrollably giggle on the floor. She reached up to pick the curiously chirping Recall off her brother's chest to keep the sparkling from accidentally poking something he shouldn't. "He'll have a complete mental breakdown when he finds out that the car he's been riding in for the majority of his life is actually his best friend."

"We might not be able to wait that long," Wheeljack faintly said, shaking his head as if he had been in a daze and turning back to wiggle his fingers at Topaz, who certainly didn't care at the moment as she played with the bow on her baby doll. "I just got a message from 'Bee saying he'll be signaling for Optimus' team to land soon."

"He found the AllSpark?" Bluestreak asked, jumping off the floor with barely contained excitement. Recall, sensing his excitement, reached up to him with a beep and laughed as he was flung into the air. "Maybe we can make more sparklings for ours to play with!"

Smokescreen looked at Bluestreak like he had lost his mind, and Victoria could only shake her head when Wheeljack enthusiastically agreed. "No more sparklings until we deal with these guys. I don't want to watch another person try to dissect a sparkling again."

A sober air flooded the room, and Bluestreak stopped tossing the giggling mechling into the air. Unaware of the serious turn the conversation around him had taken, Recall insistently beeped and tugged on Bluestreak's arms to get them to work again. Wheeljack merely sighed when Smokescreen looked at him questionably. "We're not even sure Bumblebee's found the AllSpark. All he said was that he was going to give Optimus the signal soon, and I know for a fact that if anyone will know how to handle these humans it would be him. Plus there's the added bonus of Ratchet, Ironhide, and Jazz. So even if the humans don't listen, we have a big enough force to effectively protect the bitlets."

"Where is he?" Smokescreen asked while Victoria nodded in consensus with Wheeljack's plan.

"Some little town called Tranquility. It looks like it's only a few hours from here, outside of Los Angeles." Wheeljack bent down to pick the tired Topaz off the bed, pleased that she didn't seem to mind being cradled by him as she hugged her doll close. "Operation: Get on the Princess' Good Side" seemed to be working very nicely. "We should get going before they do connect the dots between us and Smoke's alias. It won't be that hard since his papers say we're family."

The others nodded, and it wasn't long after that they were sneaking the disguised/hidden sparklings through the lobby. However, there was no way to hide Eric, and Smokescreen got quite a number of looks as he casually walked around with the unconscious lanky man slung over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

**)(**

"You lost them!" Other people in the shop paused to stare as Simmons slammed his hand onto the table and began to erratically curse. "How could you lose a pair of teenagers?"

"Technically they're young adults."

He pulled the phone away from his ear to glare at it, as if it could somehow relay said glare to his current partner. "Do you think I care about technicalities? The last thing we need is for them to warn the new N.B.E. of our presence. We were lucky to pick up on the thing in Portland, and it still took us days to track it back here. Banachek wants to hear a progress report _today_, or he's pulling us from the assignment and putting us back on N.B.E. 04, leaving this new alien unmonitored."

"I know sir, and I profoundly apologize for my mess up. It won't happen again—I swear."

Simmons sighed and leaned against the table to massage his forehead. It was at times like these that he shamelessly wished for some of his old partners. Despite the fact that some of them made his "craziness" look tame, they knew how to get a job done without screwing it up. For instance, there had been one agent—James something-or-other—that had been partnered with him for a while. Now _he_ knew how to get things done, and Simmons had honestly been impressed. Until the day the man just snapped.

Working for Sector 7 was no walk in the park, and he knew that. He'd seen more men and women crack under the pressure than he wished to see. The secrecy of it all just got to some people, ruined outside relationships. James was just one in the endless line of agents that had lost his wife and kid through divorce. Simmons hadn't cared about the man's personal business, as long as the job got done having been his motto at the time.

As partners, even distance ones, he should have seen that something wasn't altogether right after the divorce. Unfortunately, it wasn't until after James had left a trail of carnage chasing down the vehicle N.B.E. 04 had mimicked that Simmons acknowledged that the good agent was completely off his rocker. As Simmons had drove them back to HQ, he had listened to James spout out nonsense about how it was the aliens' fault that they were gone, how his small family was dead, and how Sector 7 had covered up their deaths.

Perturbed by the man's severe break from reality, Simmons had immediately gone to Banachek and all but ordered the man be psychologically examined and receive the help he needed. Apparently James hadn't appreciated that and had vanished without a trace and had been MIA ever since.

"Sir, are you still there?"

Simmons sighed as the tentative voice of his current partner brought him back to reality. "Yeah. I want you to dig up some more information about the guy's sister. She was highly suspicious—looked like she knew more than her brother did. I'm starting to believe we questioned the wrong person."

"Yes si-sir! I've found them!"

"What?"

"I've found them! They're coming out of the Ritz-Carlton with others…sir, I think we may have just hit the jackpot."

Simmons stared blankly at the wall before a huge grin slowly stretched across his face. "Well I'll be damned. Good work Kramer. We might be able to make a fine agent out of you after all."

He flipped the phone shut before he got a response and grabbed his little disposable bowl of Rocky Road ice cream before hurrying out of the ice cream shop. He'd deal with the dressing down that Banachek was bound to give him later for not reporting to him first. Right now he had a potential group of N.B.E.s to deal with.

**)(**

The sound of something being dropped on the table beside him made James involuntarily jump and nearly knock over his microscope. He wordlessly glared as Leland—sorry _Silas_—collapsed into a chair beside him and propped his mud covered boots on the table he was currently working on. The scarred man popped his back while stretching and gestured at the camera he had placed there. "Well, why don't you have a look?"

James continued to glare at the bigger man but nevertheless reached for the camera. An involuntary spasm wracked through his arm just as he picked the device up, and a strangled growl slipped through his lips as it fell onto the ground. He sat down and gripped his arm in an effort to keep the spasms controlled while Silas chuckled and bent down to retrieve the camera. "That girl did quite a number on you. You're lucky that I showed up in time to save your hide from expiring on the floor right there."

The brunet glared, flexing his hand as muscle control returned. He didn't like to discuss what had happened in the basement a mere three days ago, and Silas knew that…which was why the ass was bringing it up. _Again._ It just seemed to amuse him to no end to discover that a _girl_ had caused this damage to James. "Wha-wha-what d-do you wa-want?"

James scowled at the stutter that had developed. The medic Silas had on hand had told him to be thankful he was even alive from the shock his system had received, but James couldn't bring himself to be so grateful. Instead of dying, he now suffered mild to intense seizures at a drop of dime, stuttered, and from time to time even lost feeling in his extremities. And Silas was there to mockingly smile at him the entire way.

"I merely seek to encourage you to accept my gracious offer," Silas said in a mockingly benevolent tone as he handed the camera to the other man. By that time, the spasms had faded and James was able to grip the camera without hindrance. "What is the point of remaining here, in a house that has been destroyed and serves as only a reminder for your failure? Your precious research has been wiped out, your specimen stolen from you, equipment destroyed. MECH can provide you a fully functioning lab, not just a little microscope. And with your aid, we can provide you with new specimens."

The scowl that was almost a permanent feature on his face now slipped away as he stared at the picture. It was a close up of a N.B.E., small but not nearly as small as the one he had had and unmistakably angry. He pressed the button and choked on a gasp at the picture of a bigger one, more like the ones he had seen back in Sector 7. How did Silas get such clear pictures of these? In all his years of working with the S7, the clearest picture they had ever taken was from a civilian's phone.

"It would appear that MECH is far more capable of finding these creatures," Silas continued, leaning on the table with a relaxed air. "Yet we lack the weapons needed to take them down. Six of my men are currently in critical condition from the unsolicited attack. Make us the weapons and we will fund your research, provide whatever you may need."

James flipped back and forth between the pictures before grimly nodding and handing the camera back. Silas turned his back to the scientist in order to hide his victorious smirk and left the man to stare into his microscope at the microscopic nanites he currently obsessed over. With time and effort, the man knew these nanites would lead to his most prominent success.

A gift of sorts from the girl and N.B.E. that had changed his life so drastically.

* * *

**AN: **I feel like I'm starting to make things complicated :( I'm also not a medical type person, so I have no idea if you could really suffer from the injuries James did from the taser. It made sense to me that some parts of his nervous system and brain would be damaged, plus you add the fact that Wheeljack's taser is more powerful than an ordinary one.

Now I'm extremely tired and need to get up and six, so until my next update :)


	15. How It Starts

**AN: **Yay, we're finally beginning to transition into the first movie :D I think my first attempt at Sam went swimmingly :3

_"Thinking"  
:Comm. Talk:  
_**~Bond Speech~**

Time Units**  
**Solar Cycle [Cycle]: ~1 day  
Joor: ~1 hour  
Orbital Cycle: 1 month

* * *

A New Version of Reality

Chapter Thirteen

How It Starts

**Sacrifice is a part of life. It's supposed to be. It's not something to regret. It's something to aspire to. ― Mitch Albom, _The Five People You Meet in Heaven_**

* * *

The lunchroom was filled with to the brim with the beings known as the "teenager" by the rest of society. Even within their own unique subculture, the teenager will further divide their own into subgroups, which were clearly displayed during their shifts on energy replenishment via food intake.

One side of the room was dominated by the stereotypical "jocks": football, soccer, baseball, wrestling, etcetera. Whatever sport the school supported seemed to cling to that general area of the lunchroom. Mingling within this group were the jocks' significant others (those that weren't already part of the group because of their own sports) sometimes known as "preps." Opposite of the buff and lithe teenagers were the "nerds." Band nerds, math nerds, gamer nerds: any nerd could be found on that side of the lunchroom, happily chatting with fellow nerds. Although these groups tended to be the biggest, others littered the cafeteria: goths, hipsters, skater punks, whatever.

But towards the center of the cafeteria was a table that appeared to be avoided by most. Sitting at this table was a curly haired brunet, nothing altogether impressive about his appearance that would draw anyone's attention. He was nervously twitching in hard plastic seat, pulverizing what little food was on his tray, and glaring at the dirty blond sitting across from him, who was practically shoving his food in his mouth. "How can you eat at a time like this?"

The blond paused and glanced up at the other occupant of the table before slowly swallowing the mouthful he had and reaching for the can of coke sitting on the table. "Dude, I'm hungry!"

"You're hungry?" the other teenager asked in an exaggerated voice. "During my time of panic? What kind of friend does that? I can't– I can't even– you are dead to me at the moment. Completely dead."

"Dude," the blond repeated as if he couldn't believe how melodramatic his friend was being. "Sam, you're being _way_ too dramatic about this. Just chill man."

"Chill?" Sam stuttered and angled his head to mockingly cup his ear. "Did you just tell me to _chill_? Let's see, when _your _future is riding on you getting an A on an oral presentation in your next class, _then_ I'll 'chill.' Until then my ability to 'chill' is nonexistent."

Sam looked offended when his friend burst into a fit of laughter, losing his grip on his Sloppy Joe to use that hand to laugh into. "Oh man, you should see your face right now! I haven't seen it so serious since our fourth grade play!"

"Alright," Sam said with a new irritated edge to his voice as he stood from the table in a huff. "I can't deal with you right now Miles. I'll lose what little composure I have and go into a full-fledged spazz attack on you."

Miles quickly reached out to snag the sleeve of his friend's jacket and forced him back into the chair, still snickering the whole time. "Come on man! I only tease. What's your problem anyways? You've, like, never had any problems with school since now."

Sam released a gush of air and slumped into his seat. He reached out to fiddle with the zipper of his backpack sitting on the table before answering. "You know that deal I've got with my dad. Two grand and three A's from one of the four academic classes I have this semester. Not from Ceramics or Woodshop—he thinks those are too easy. I got an A on my final English paper and I know I'm getting an A in Chemistry. I completely bombed my Trig test, so my last hope rides on this genealogy report next period."

"That's not what's got your panties in a twist," Miles confidently stated while ignoring the brunet's glare. He had been friends with Sam since Kindergarten; he was like an expert on reading Sam Slang…Samual Speech? Witwicky Words! Alright, the name was a definite work in progress, but that was _so_ going on his next résumé. "What's really up?"

Sam nervously laughed and stuttered a bit before leaning his elbows on the table and muttering something into the table. Miles teasingly hummed in question, and Sam groaned as he repeated what he had just said. "Mikaela's in the class. And it's an _oral_ report. As in, I have to get up, stand in front of the class, and tell them about my boring great-great-grandfather, who ended up going crazy and doesn't paint a very good future for my own sanity."

"So this is all about Mikaela…_again._"

"Wha-what's _that_ supposed to mean?"

"What's what supposed to mean?"

"That tone man. That…combination of exaggeration, annoyance, and anger."

"I'm just saying," Miles started in exasperation as he dunked a fry into the combination of ketchup and mustard on his tray, thoroughly covering it in the orange substance and devouring before continuing. "That anytime you start stressing, it's about that girl. I'm all for admiring…a woman's figure, but dude, when it starts to borderline 'admiring' and 'stalking,' then we got issues."

"I'm not _stalking_ her Miles."

"Oh! So it's a complete coincidence that you have every class with her this semester?"

The two friends stared each other down—Miles' surprisingly calm blue eyes clashing with Sam's twitchy brown—until Sam haltingly answered, "…yes…"

"Point proven," Miles said, though the triumphant that should have come from being right wasn't there. Instead the blond simply looked tired. "Dude, just let whatever fantasy you've created between you and her go. You two have been in at least one class with each other since the first grade, and she's never given you a second glance. She's too busy hanging off of Trent's arm to care."

Sam glanced across the cafeteria to were the female in question was amicably chatting with her friends in her seat beside the "King Jock" Trent. She laughed at something her friend said, and Sam temporarily forgot about everything else as he admired her smile. It was so pretty…

…and then he found himself "mysteriously" shoved onto the floor. Miles couldn't resist snickering as his friend's dazed looked turned into dazed _and_ confused. "See man? She causes you pain even without knowing who you are. Look, there's this really cute girl in our Ceramics class who is always trying to flirt with you but you're too dense to notice-"

"Hey! I'm concentrating on making the perfect pinch pot!"

"-so why don't you give her a chance?" Miles finished as if he had never been interrupted. He reached over to give his friend a hand up. "She seems really cool, and you never know. Once you're over your fantasy with the jock's concubine, she might be the love of your life."

Sam stared at Miles and then glanced over at where Mikaela still sat, completely oblivious to his existence. He hated to admit, but he had to for the sheer fact that Miles very rarely spoke wisdom of this magnitude: Miles was right. For years now, he had been mindlessly fantasizing what it would be like for Mikaela to _finally_ notice him. Maybe they'd bump into each other in the hall; be forced to work on some project together in a class; or maybe he'd learn to sing and discover that she also sang, and they'd sing themselves to happiness in the school's next musical.

(He blamed his little cousin for that last fantasy. Hours of watching _High School Musical _over and over _and over_ again made a teenage boy have some weird dreams.)

"Okay," he finally admitted out loud, causing Miles to look at him with surprise. "Maybe you're right. I'll ask the girl from Ceramics out…_after_ I get my car. No, no, hear me out." Miles shut his mouth and swallowed any protests he had wanted to voice. "One last try. One last try to get her attention, and if a car doesn't work, then I'll know it was never meant to be."

"No more Mikaela obsessing."

"I am _not_ obsessed, but no. No more Mikaela obsessing."

"And you won't pout about it?"

"I don't pout Miles. I may not be the manliest guy out there but I have some manly…dignity…whatever." Sam shook his head and reached for his backpack. "Right now, I have an oral presentation I need to ace."

"You go dude!" Miles shouted to boost his friend's confidence. Unfortunately, it had the exact opposite effect as people turned to stare at the yell, and Sam's face unconsciously reddened in embarrassment while he made awkward gestures in an attempt to somehow wave away the stares. "Make that report your bitch!"

"Okay, no more 'pep rallying' Miles."

"What? But I'm helping!"

"No, you're not. Just shut up and gives me a thumbs up or something."

Miles pantomimed zipping his lips shut and held two thumbs up high above his head. Sam acknowledged the silent encouragement with a nod and scurried out of the lunchroom before any more attention could be drawn to him. Miles was a good friend, but sometimes he couldn't the grasp the concept of "subtlety." Or being quiet…or just keeping his mouth shut. Now that he thought about it, Miles didn't really grasp the concept of a lot of things.

Sam hiked his backpack higher onto his shoulder and hurried down the empty hallway lined with lockers on either side. Lunch didn't end for another five minutes and those that didn't have lunch were stuck in classrooms either learning, pretending to learn, or with their faces plastered to the windows of the doors as they eagerly awaited their lunch shift. He saw that as one of the benefits of having lunch before class.

The teenager peeked through the window of his classroom before opening the door and slipping in. His teacher didn't even glance up from the computer as he quietly maneuvered around the other desks to sit at his. "Mr. Williams."

"Witwicky," the teacher droned without looking up from his computer, as the unofficial routine they had set in place halfway through the semester dictated. "I hope you have your presentation ready because at this point I'm tempted to give the half of the class that skipped their days in favor of using the make-up day a zero."

"Yep, I've got it all right here," Sam joked with a heavy pat on his backpack. He drummed his fingers against the cloth that made up the bag when the teacher didn't respond. "So…"

"Don't make this anymore awkward than it already is Mr. Witwicky."

"Right." Sam slumped into his seat and shifted his hands to his lap, fiddling with his fingers for lack of anything else to do. He glanced up at the clock and felt a knot form in his stomach as the second hand counted down the seconds until class began. He was going to ace this presentation without making a fool of himself. And after he got his A, he'll proudly show it off to his dad when he was picked up, and they'll drive to the closest car dealership and pick out his new car. After that, he'll finally get the attention he has wanted from Mikaela.

"_Yep,"_ he thought to himself as the bell signaling the end of lunch rang and other students (particularly Mikaela) began to loudly enter the classroom. _"Today will be the new start to the rest of my life."_

It was too bad that the "rest of his life" wasn't exactly the one that he had in mind.

**)(**

Victoria glanced over at the passenger's seat when she heard her brother beginning to groan into consciousness. She couldn't resist rolling her eyes at how "pathetic" he sounded and lounged further into the comfy seat Bluestreak graciously supplied. "Looks like Sleeping Beauty is waking up…again."

Bluestreak snickered at the sarcasm practically dripping from her words and lazily swerved behind Wheeljack and Smokescreen as they cruised down the highway. Recall chirped questioningly at the amusement before returning to the important matter at hand: turning the little DVD player on his lap back on to watch his movies. The poor sparkling didn't understand that when the battery in the device died it needed to be plugged back into its power source, which was currently Bluestreak, and he wasn't willing to hand it over even to Victoria. So he continued to poke at the screen and encourage the movie to reappear with beeps and buzzes.

Victoria thought it was one of the most adorable things she'd ever seen, right after seeing all three sparklings curled up together in recharge that morning. She really needed to buy a camera to start documenting these episodes of cuteness.

"Smokey put down five more bucks on Eric fainting again," Bluestreak relayed, amicably pretending that there hadn't been a grown man drooling on his leather seat for the past hour. "I matched him for Eric staying awake this time."

"Don't encourage his gambling addictions," Victoria chided while keeping an eye on the shifting form of her brother. He really took his sweet time waking up, didn't he? "And don't use my brother as an excuse to do it."

"At least we're not like Wheeljack, who put down a cube of high grade that Eric's head would explode if he couldn't accept the truth. Something about his neurons working too hard and creating too much energy or something. I think Smokey actually considered it for a moment before he said that Wheeljack was lying about the high grade and refused to take his bet. Now 'Jack's pouting with Star and refuses to talk to anyone."

"I would make a comment about him acting so childishly but that's like pointing out that Red Alert's paranoid." Victoria reached over to shove Eric into the door, making him jerk fully awake and Bluestreak to jerk at the sudden and mild pain input. The feeling flashed across their bond and was gone just as suddenly, but the woman still frowned in remorse and petted the steering wheel as a form of apology. "Sorry."

"S'okay! I've had a lot worse before. Like this one time, when I was a youngling, I was tagging along with Jazz while he was attempting to prank Prowl, and I don't know how it happened, but somehow I got my door-wings stuck in one of the vents we were crawling around in, and Ratchet had to tell him to dislocate the joints so that I could get them unstuck. I don't think I've ever cried as much since that cycle, but I still remember how Jazz almost offlined from Prowl's glare alone. True story. You should ask Jazz about it when he lands. He'll tell you how he seriously had to hide from Prowl for the next orbital cycle."

Victoria hummed to show that she had listened to his story before turning her attention back to her brother, who sat frozen in his seat and looking at the dashboard like it was possessed. To be fair, that's likely the same reaction she would have if she had woken up to hearing a disembodied voice reminiscing about its childhood. "Are you awake now?"

Eric hesitated. "Yes?"

"Good. You're inside an alien robot that has the ability to transform into a car—a Nissan to be specific. You know the car as being my best friend Blake, but his real name is Bluestreak, and he's been using a device that allows him to project a human form as long as he stays within a specific range of his real form." Recall buzzed from the backseat, reminding Victoria of the sparklings' presence. "Oh, and there are two baby robot aliens in the backseat that I have all but officially adopted as my own along with one more that is riding with Jack, who is also a robot whose full name is Wheeljack. Any questions?"

Eric stared at her with wide light grey eyes, and for a moment, Victoria thought that he would faint again. She was beginning to become worried that something might be seriously wrong with her brother because of how many times he had fainted in the past few hours. Maybe she should have rethought this direct way of telling him this time.

"Okay."

"Okay?" Victoria incredulously repeated as the man relaxed into the seat and stared out the windshield. "That's it? You're not going to question any of this or faint again?"

"…I don't think so."

"So you're fine with this?"

"Hell no. What normal—_sane_—person would be fine with this?"

Recall buzzed with excitement when he realized his new playmate was awake and tossed the DVD player aside, temporarily waking Topaz from her nap when the electronic bumped against her car seat. Hearing the odd noise, Eric twisted around in his seat and stared at the little Pretender chirping with excitement. Victoria frowned at the inquisitive glint she saw in his eyes when he turned to her. "No."

"But-"

"You don't need to know."

"You don't even know what I wanna know!"

"Eric, I'm your sister. I'm pretty darn sure I know what it is you want to ask, and the answer is still no."

The enclosed space was quiet, save for the oblivious "chatting" sparkling, until Eric emitted a pathetic whimper, reached over to grasp the woman's upper arm and just as pathetically leaned against it. "But I _need_ to know."

"No."

"Aw!"

Bluestreak couldn't resist snickering at the siblings' interaction, and Eric suddenly tensed at the reminder that the car he rode in wasn't exactly a _car._ That only proved that despite his joking mood and lack of fainting, he wasn't entirely comfortable with the information he had just received yet. The mech pretended to be oblivious to this and acted as he normally would: purposely naïve. "I'm pretty sure 'Jack won't mind telling you all about that, though I don't think he'll get as much fun out of it because you don't seem to get as easily embarrassed like Vicky. Her whole face impersonates a tomato whenever he talks about stuff like that and then compares it to human inter- ow!"

This time Victoria felt no shame for the pain brought on by her sudden kick beneath Bluestreak's dashboard. Recall burst into a joyous fit of laughter at the jerky motion brought on by the kick, and his sweet giggles worked to put a small amount of sincerity behind the innocent smile the woman forced her lips to form. "I'm so sorry Blue! My foot must have slipped while I was stretching."

"Liar."

"Are you insinuating that I would purposely put you in pain?"

"Only when the topic of 'Wheeljack' comes up."

The man gradually relaxed as their mild bantering continued until he was freely moving around the interior of the mech like it was simply another vehicle. He kept turning around to look at Recall, who interpreted his disappearing and reappearing around the seat as a version of "Peek-a-Boo" and kept up a continuous stream of happy giggles. His giggles served to completely wake Topaz from her nap, and she began to move around, snatching up the bottle of Energon she had been sucking on before falling into recharge and finishing it while simultaneously reaching for her baby doll that had fallen onto the seat between the sparkling siblings.

Eric stretched around his seat to nudge the doll towards the tiny questing servo, and the femmeling gave a satisfied grunt when she was able to clutch the toy to her luminescent chest. Recall happily chittered to the man and grabbed his hand before it could be retracted. Eric flinched at the sudden contact and warily watched as the mechling innocently buzzed and examined the bigger hand, pressing their palms together as if to measure just how much bigger it was. Comparison now complete, Recall snuggled his face into the hand with a contented purr of approval.

It was adorable…and then an empty bottle was suddenly flying across the seat to smack the mechling into the head.

While the sparkling squawked in disapproval of his sister's actions, Eric retracted his hand and turned around in his seat to intently stare at it. He flipped it over, wiggled his fingers, and (for reasons only Eric understood) _sniffed_ the palm of his hand before turning his attention back to his sister, who was…tickling the car? Yep, apparently pressing certain buttons on the radio elicited giggles from the _transforming alien robot_.

As if the situation couldn't have gotten any weirder.

"So this is seriously happening?" Eric questioned, regaining his sister's immediate attention. "Those aren't just animatronic dolls and there isn't a hidden walkie-talkie or something like that?"

At Victoria's hesitant nod, Eric groaned and weaved his fingers through his already messy hair. He pointed at the familiar vehicles in front of them, the closest to them being Wheeljack. "Is Shawn an alien too? No wait, what did you call him this morning? Ah! It's the on tip of my tongue…Smokescream?"

"Smoke_screen_, but it's very impressive you're able to remember his name after hitting your head so many when you fell after fainting."

"Thank you talking car. You are way more helpful than all the other talking cars I've met. My best friend has lied to me for our entire friendship! It's all been lies! Every single thing that came out of his mouth…lies! How can I ever trust him again? Scratch that—how am I going to be able to _look _him, knowing that the very form of 'Shawn' is perhaps the biggest lie of all? How am I going to explain all the…awkward things I did in his car—no _him_—when he would leave me alone? There's no way to explain that away."

"Are you finished yet?"

"No. Our friendship is like nothing now; we're complete and total strangers who live in the same apartment, and drink coffee with each other every morning, and use the same bathroom, and –are you _copying_ my dramatic monologue robot baby?"

Recall's dramatic clicks and beeps were cut off by a squeak when Eric suddenly turned in his seat to "glare" at the sparkling. The mechling attempted to scrunch up into a ball by bringing his knobby knees to his chest and wrapping his spindly arms around them and innocently chirped at the man with as much cuteness as he could muster. Eric slowly turned back around in his seat and blankly stared at Victoria. "Vi…he's freaking adorable."

"I am aware of that."

"I can't stay mad at him. It's like…like being mad at a little puppy that just chewed up your slipper."

"Mmhmm."

"I just wanna snuggle him to death." Eric twisted back around to coo at the mechling, making Recall unfurl with a delighted twitter. The man held out his arms and invitingly wiggled his fingers at the sparkling. "Come snuggle with me you adorable alien!"

"Well," Bluestreak started as Recall finally found an adult that could speak his wordless language without any type of embarrassment. "I think your brother took the news very well. You know, after he stopped fainting and all."

"There was no doubting that he would eventually accept it with open arms," Victoria answered as she watched her brother painstakingly twist, bend, and scoot until he was finally snuggled up in the cramped back seat with both sparklings. Recall was absolutely delighted to have the man in close reach, but unfortunately Topaz felt different about having him so close and blocking the Pretender from her view. She screeched once and immediately began to bombard Eric with anything within her reach and not firmly attached to another surface. "Although, I'm not exactly sure he actually understands the gravity of the situation."

Bluestreak hummed in understanding as Eric was relentlessly pummeled with a teddy bear. It was surprisingly easy to ignore the yelping man, uncontrollably giggling mechling, and the screeching femmeling asserting her dominance in the crowded backseat. "I think we should find a place to pull over and let Eric ride with Smokey the rest of the way. It just feels like they should get some stuff resolved between each other because I know he wasn't be serious about some of the stuff he said, but it is a huge issue to find out that after twelve years of friendship one of the closest people you thought you knew turns out to potentially be a complete stranger, which I don't think is _that_ big of an deal between them because other than not telling Eric that he wasn't exactly human, Smokey's been pretty open with who he is. So that should get resolved pretty quickly."

"Maybe," Victoria voiced when the talkative mech paused long enough for her to do so. She turned around to glare at her brother when she heard the almost inaudible sound of Topaz's fans overworking themselves again. "Eric, don't overexcite that baby. She has a very serious health problem at the moment."

Eric sputtered as he was blindsided by a rattle. "She's the one that's trying to kill me!"

"Then get back up here and leave her alone!"

"Fine!" Bluestreak laughed along with Recall as the man struggled to get back into the front seat, somehow ending up face first in the floorboard and legs kicking precariously close to the woman's head. "Uh oh…"

"Eric! Get your butt out of my face!"

"Uh…I can't. Just –just admire it until I can figure out how to turn around without killing myself."

Bluestreak laughed even harder at the intense exasperation that came from Victoria and fleetingly wondered if Recall and Topaz's relationship would be anything like the older pair of sibling's.

**)( **

"So…what is the answer to (5 y^(10/2))/(x^2 x (-3/(x^3 y))^2)? And show me your work this time you little stinker."

Star huffed at the order and chittered to himself while scribbling out the answer he had already written in his coloring pad. Wheeljack would have smiled if his current form had allowed him to. Despite now knowing that the Seekerlet frame embodied half of Starscream's spark, he was still an adorable sparkling at times. The engineer still wondered how two Starscreams were running around in this dimension, seeing how the way the rest of them had ended up here was basically by hopping into the frames of their "this-dimension-selves." Actually before they had separated, Ratchet had begun to argue that in order for them to exist here, the ones currently here had to die.

And then it just got complicated to the point that even Perceptor had been confused enough to swiftly change the subject.

The point was, there were no doubles. There was no other Wheeljack walking around blowing things up, or another Optimus making femmes swoon at the sound of his deep voice. Sideswipe kept tabs on Mirage for them to hopefully figure out how the transference worked, but so far the haughty former noble showed no recognition of what had happened between them, which also corresponded with the fact that he was the only one left in the group to have not been put in a life-threatening situation. If he was being truthful (which he was…most of the time), it was kind of sad to now understand why most of them had all first onlined on a medical berth.

The fact that only half of Star's spark actually belonged to Starscream could be explained by the engineer's tentative theory that the hard-helmed Seeker hadn't waited for this dimension's version of himself to die off. He had somehow (and this honestly wasn't surprising considering this was _Starscream_) found a way to bypass that tiny detail, and because of that, he ended up in the frame of a sparkling with only vague awareness of who he really was. Just a name and a trine bond. Wheeljack wasn't even aware of the extent of the Seekerlet's memories, though it was becoming apparent that Starscream had stubbornly clung to his scientific background.

Star loudly chirped to regain the engineer's attention, and Wheeljack focused inward on his passenger. The Seekerlet chose his radio to serve as his optics this time and proudly held up the pad with the problem worked out in green crayon. The mech obnoxiously hummed as he checked the work, already knowing that it was correct. He had started these exercises on a whim, wanting to learn how smart the Seekerlet was now that he knew his identity, and at first Star hadn't understood what the mech wanted. However, once Wheeljack had used his holoform to demonstrate, Star had happily taken on the challenge and had so far answered each mathematical problem correctly.

"Good job!" the engineer praised and watched as Star predictably puffed up at the praise. "Now that let's do some fun stuff. Like the building blocks for organic life! Then we can talk about converting fossil fuels into Energon. Maybe you can use that information in that tiny head of yours to help me figure out what I'm doing wrong when I try using Ethanol for the same purpose."

The Seekerlet chose to pick up on only the "insult" about his head being tiny and indignantly chirped while crossing his arms across his chest in a huff. Wheeljack chuckled and focused on the road long enough to pass Smokescreen, who obnoxiously honked at the engineer's audacity. Bluestreak chimed in from further behind with a honking rhythm that would have made Jazz proud.

"Now that we're the head of the pack—as we should rightfully be—let's talk science!" The Seekerlet huffed some more and turned away from the radio, scrunching up in the seat and looking out the window in a blatant act of dismissal. "Aw, don't be like that. We were having so much fun. Please? You understand a little of what I'm saying."

Star decided to pick at his tiny claws and chewed on the tip of one when he deemed it uneven. Wheeljack sadly sighed at the loss of someone to talk about his scientific "mumbo-jumbo" with and solely focused on the road now. They had about three more hours until they reached Tranquility, and he was actually surprised that they hadn't had to stop at one of the rest stops yet. He figured that because of abrupt departure that surely one of the humans would eventually ask to stop.

Speaking of humans…"Hey Star, I thought you were going to get Vicky to guess your full name. Have you given up already?"

That caught the sparkling's attention and earned Wheeljack an audio receptor full of indignant squawks as if Star found it highly offensive that the older mech would assume he had given up. Wheeljack patiently took the abuse from the high pitched screeches and only sighed in relief when Star stopped to flip through his coloring pad. The sound of rustling paper was much more preferred over Star's voice. "What're you…_oh_…"

Star gleefully chirped at the speechless mech and glanced around his pad to admire the picture he was showing off. It wasn't a Picasso or da Vinci, but it got the Seekerlet's point across quite nicely. As much as a red, white, and blue blob in the vague shape of jet could. Beside that was a little equation where a bundle of crooked stars plus what looked like a sparkling (that looked very vaguely like a certain femmeling they knew…) throwing a tantrum equaled another tricolored blob with red eyes. Finally there were two huge glyphs down in the corner of the page, darkened to emphasize their importance and catch the eye, that came together to form the name "_Starscream."_

"_That little stinker!"_ Wheeljack thought to himself even as he praised the Seekerlet's designs. _"He's thought of the perfect way to tell them without actually _telling_ them. I thought I would at least have a few more days to break the news to Bluestreak."_

"That's cheating," he decided to point out, deflating Star's ego a bit and getting a glare. "Nu uh. You can't write your full name on the paper. That takes all the guessing out of the game and you lose."

"You lose" were apparently the magic words to win any argument against the proud sparkling because he immediately grabbed a black crayon to scribble out the second glyph, which just showed how determined Star was to win the "game." Wheeljack wasn't sure if the lying and cheating aspect of the old Starscream was present in the sparkling, but it appeared that for right now he would continue to play by the rules.

Star held up his picture and almost tentatively clicked for the engineer's approval, making Wheeljack almost awe at the rare display. Darn Starscream for being so cute now! "Much better. I really do like the rest, especially the jet blob. You are one smart bitlet…what's the matter?"

Star bleeped and clutched at his chassis right above where his spark could barely be seen. For a brief second, Wheeljack allowed himself to panic and map out the nearest gas station/rest stop. This was exactly how the Seekerlet had acted right before spazzing out and nearly destroying his interior before Victoria had calmed the sparkling down. He seriously did _not_ want a repeat of that episode. _:I'm pulling over at the next gas station.:_

There was a buzz of confusion over the open channel between him and the two Praxians, but he was too busy watching Star to notice them. The Seekerlet beeped once before comically falling onto his side in the seat, confusion written all over his face. Then that confusion was gradually replaced by another emotion, and Star was angrily squawking and growling at nothing while repeatingly tapping his chassis.

Wheeljack wasn't sure what to make of the strange behavior, so he simply kicked his speed up a notch. "Uh, you okay there Star?"

The Seekerlet snapped out of his argument with the air and buzzed in confusion at the engineer's voice. His entire frame vibrated from helm to pede once before he was sitting back up and reaching for his coloring pad. Wheeljack's speed almost halved from the sheer shock of the Seekerlet acting like _nothing_ had just happened. "Starscream what just happened? Are you alright? Are you about to tear my seats apart because I'd very much like to keep them intact?"

Star didn't even glance up from his drawing as he contently buzzed an affirmative…right before viciously stabbing the paper and snapping his crayon in half.

Wheeljack almost ran five people off the road in his hurry to get to the nearest safe place to stop to save his interior from the bipolar sparkling.

**)(**

If anyone had been around to see the black and purple jet sharply bank and nosedive towards the ground, they would have been shocked then awed as the fast falling jet suddenly pulled back at the last second, twisted, and transformed, landing with far more elegance than the bulky size would have hinted at. The Decepticon straightened from his crouch, twitching his wings to flick off the snow and dirt his landing had kicked up, and a smug smirk flitted across his face.

That was a perfect landing! The best one he'd done since landing on this miserable planet! "Did you see-"

Skywarp's exclamation abruptly trailed off at the remembrance that no one was around to witness his awesomeness. His wings stiffened and he held them high above his shoulders as he trekked across the rocky plateau to stare at down at the humans who drove by oblivious to the fact that they were being watched by a far superior entity…great, now he was starting to sound like Starscream.

Speaking of Starscream, where the heck was that slagger? The younger Seeker had been making so much headway when he had warped away from Thundercracker! He'd spent almost two joors allowing the trine bond to just effortlessly pull him into the direction of his wayward brother until he had allowed his giddiness to get the best of him and lost the signal. Well, "lost" was a strong word for what had happened. It was more like Starscream had realized he was there and sloppily blocked him in an act of stubborn defiance. Skywarp could almost hear him now:

"_You've been blocking me, so I'm gonna block you back, so…nyah!"_

Skywarp couldn't help that his mental image of the tricolored mech involved childishly sticking his glossa out. He thought it was a very accurate image of Starscream! TC would agree…

The stiff wings drooped a bit as he was reminded (_again_) that he was currently on his own. Which was fine! He preferred to be alone; he didn't always need his trine mates around. Sometimes they just got in the way. Like…like Starscream would be complaining about how he needed to adjust his internal systems to deal with the constant changes in altitude. Or Thundercracker would have got onto to him about how reckless his dive had been, completely ignoring the _amazingness _of the landing that followed.

…nope, he didn't miss them at all…

Why the frag was Starscream ignoring him! And TC was no better. The poor fragger didn't even realize the extent of his ignorance. Skywarp bet that the older Seeker didn't even realize how he unconsciously blocked them out until he consciously reached out, like when he wanted to talk to Skywarp without the worry of anyone like Shockwave or even Rumble overhearing them.

This was probably the first and only time Skywarp felt _bad_ for his brother. Yes, as a trine they took care of each other, after all what was the use of a broken unit? But Skywarp wasn't the one to take the time to make sure that Starscream took a break from his scientific endeavors or his efforts to usurp Megatron long enough to consume his ration of Energon or that Thundercracker got his systems retuned after the rare times that his sonic booms put them on the fritz. He was the youngest of the trine—he wasn't _required_ to worry about those things.

Thundercracker on the other hand had deemed it his job to take care of them from the very get go. Starscream, while proving to be best out of the three of them to actually lead, sometimes lacked the ability to be concerned over what he deemed "little things," like when a temporary bounty had been put on Skywarp's helm because he had pranked the wrong Decepticon or even his own health at certain times. He lead them into battle, disciplined when there was the need to, and comforted when approached in private but otherwise did not poke his nose into their business.

Thundercracker basically made up for what that their trine leader was lacking in, which didn't even say much. He tended to protect Skywarp from certain things because as the youngest he deemed the black and purple Seeker needing it, and he made sure that Starscream took care of himself.

But neither of them really bothered doing the same for the blue Seeker. Thundercracker rarely made it known if something was really bothering him, and he didn't require their hounding to make sure he was in a healthy state of being. Sure there were times when he and Starscream would vanish without Skywarp, but the younger Seeker had never minded since he sometimes hogged either one of the brothers. He'd never even put any thought as to why Thundercracker would come back less wound up or why Starscream would be ranting about how the bigger Seeker was worse at keeping things in than he was.

And maybe that was the point. Thundercracker didn't want Skywarp to see him in need because it completely destroyed his image as being the strong one. The one able to withstand Megatron's tirades without so much as twitching; the one who could casually engage in a staring showdown with Soundwave and emerge victorious almost half of the time, who could bear the brunt of the Conehead trine's stupidity with just a controlled sigh.

Well, the older Seeker would just have to suck it up and accept Skywarp's help! Skywarp—the least responsible, self-centered, prankster of the Seeker trio—was going to get TC's sanity back! And that all started with finding Starscream and showing the older Seeker that he had in fact lost his processer while trying so hard to make sure Skywarp didn't lose his own sanity.

And so what if in the process of that he proves that he isn't a burden to the trine? This was all about Thundercracker and Starscream—not about him…but after he saved the day he was _totally_ going to reward himself. Since he was now on Earth, maybe he'd track down Victoria and make her his little pet now that the humans were smaller than they were. Or take off for a while to figure out who that extra bond belonged to since Thundercracker was choosing to pretend that didn't even exist. _Or _he'd just find an Autobot to string up by his pedes and experience the allure of piñatas.

He was leaning more towards finding Vicky since an Auto-piñata wouldn't give him yummy Energon treats anyway and he didn't really want to accept the responsibility of a spark-mate that he wasn't aware of floating out in space. But first came finding Starscream, which meant staying on course until he reached the place where the big-headed Seeker had begun to block him. From there, Skywarp would use his amazing and awesome tracking skills to follow the trail left behi–

Skywarp yelped as the snow beneath his pedes suddenly shifted, causing him to lose his balance and tumble helm first down the steep plateau. Fortunately it was in the opposite direction of the human life he had been staring at earlier, but that didn't prove to be good news for the poor trees that took the brunt of the Seeker's rolls. With engines sputtering as he came to an uncomfortable halt on his domed cockpit, Skywarp scowled at the snow mere inches from his face. "Slaggit! I remember why I hated you, stupid snow. You're evil! And now I have pine needles stuck in my turbines!"

The Decepticon jet grumbled and growled as he sat up and began the awkward process of ridding his frame of the organic matter he had picked up from his unplanned genocide of pine trees. It was times like this that he honestly wished he could forget things as easily as most Decepticons assumed he did, but at least Rumble hadn't been there to rub it in his face.

**)(**

"I'm telling you the truth! He was about to have another psychotic break in my cab."

It was obvious from the woman's incredulous expression that she didn't believe a word the engineer was saying as she stared through the open window at the Seekerlet curled up in peaceful recharge. And here she had been worried when Bluestreak had relayed Wheeljack's sudden message and watched the mech hightail it down the highway at speeds that would make any human gape. They had been lucky that there was no law enforcement on the road to pull them over.

"He might have just been grumpy and needed to take a nap," Victoria suggested in an attempt to justify one of her sparkling's apparent "psychotic break". "I didn't' feel anything upsetting from him before you drove off like a maniac."

"He was arguing with thin air!"

"Kids talk to themselves all the time. It's just them using their imagination to play be themselves when there's no one else around to play with."

That seemed to make the mech pause in thought, and Victoria took the chance to glance behind her where Bluestreak and Smokescreen were parked. Her brother was currently having a chat with Smokescreen after demanding the opportunity to do so when they were pulling into the rest stop, and she had left Bluestreak to play a round of "Mimic This Sound" with Recall and Topaz. The little Pretender absolutely _loved_ that game (on top of all the others he had been taught), but Topaz hadn't been very impressed when she was introduced to it. In fact, with her it turned into a game of "Who Can Scream the Loudest and Still Be Cute?"

"Maybe you're right," Wheeljack finally conceded, and the woman turned her attention back to him. "I might've been just a little too quick to jump to conclusions after what happened on the way here the other day. You sure you didn't feel anything weird from him?"

Victoria shrugged. "Not really, but then again, I've learned to just accept the constant demand of acceptance without really thinking about it. He's like a more demanding Bluestreak."

"Don't let Blue hear you say that," Wheeljack said teasingly as he rocked in the direction of the two Nissans parked across from them. "He might get the impression that you're replacing him."

The woman laughed at the tease as was expected and took a step back from the window. "I'm going to grab something to drink from one of the machines before we get back on the road. Let Blue know that I won't be long."

The mech gave an affirmative before rolling his window back up to hide the Seekerlet in his cab, and Victoria followed the sidewalk up to the building they were parked in front of. She quickly bypassed the bathrooms to the open room that contained two rows of vending machines, smiling when she encountered a pair of children tugging on the shorts of their father and demanding an ice cream bar from the appropriate machine.

It made her wonder if sparklings use to behave the same way, back when Cybertron was a home instead of huge warzone. It was easy to forget that her companions weren't human, thus not having to behave in the same stereotypical way. She was still learning that specific frame types had their own quirks to contend with. Like most Praxians had a more logical processor than other Cybertronians, from Bluestreak's simple ability to solve word puzzles without much thought to Prowl's inability to think abstractly at times, which sometimes proved to be more of a disadvantage than advantage. This led to the stereotypical Praxian being "serious and sometimes cold" according to Wheeljack.

Were sparklings the same? Did they pick up on the traits of the adults around them, like role models? Or were some characteristics just too universal to even question?

"Ooh! I would _not_ drink coffee from that machine. That's just got stomach issues written all over it."

Victoria immediately stiffened, fist clenching around the dollar bill she had just painstakingly flattened, and minutely turned her head to see the man now standing beside her. He gave her a smug grin as he casually peeled the wrapper off his candy bar. "_This_, on the other hand, is perfect for a road trip. You can never go wrong with a _Twix_."

A muscle twitched above her eye twitched, but she miraculously kept her stare as blank as possible instead of shifting to a glare like she wanted to. "Then I guess it's a good thing I don't drink coffee. I was thinking of getting the hot chocolate. Unless of course _you_ have a problem with that."

Simmons seemed to contemplate his answer for a moment either completely oblivious to the sarcasm saturating her words or choosing to ignore it. "Nope, hot chocolate sounds good to me. One of the best things to have come from Spain."

"Are you a fountain of worthless knowledge now? I guess being the fountain of stupid questions wasn't as invigorating."

She fought a triumphant grin as the man lost his casual composure to scowl at her. "'Worthless knowledge' is the first stepping stone to being _enlightened._ It is what separates the idiots from the genii—what prevents a person from being ignorant and falling for the stupidity of others. It's-"

"Jeez!" Victoria cut him off with exaggerated exasperation as she stuffed her money back into her pocket. "You sure know how to spoil a woman's craving for chocolate, which by the way is like a near impossible thing to do. Enjoy your candy—I think I'll be getting back on the road."

"Now that's an interesting thing," Simmons started as she turned her back to him and began walking away while trying to keep herself from simply running back to the Autobots. "Why come all the way from Colorado to The City by the Bay just to turn around and go back, with two added additions to the group no less?" He smirked when the woman stopped, stiffened back still facing him. "Unless of course you're _not_ and are just running away to hide something. You got something to hide Miss Anderson? Something big? Like, oh say, _extraterrestrial_?"

Victoria turned around to silently glare at the Sector 7 agent, who just continued to enjoy his candy bar like they were just discussing the weather. He smirked back at her. "See, I figured it out after we left today. We'd been questioning the wrong sibling; you're brother's completely oblivious to what's going on around him. He's one of those people that don't make it a point in their lives to learn the 'worthless knowledge' that we do. You, on the other hand, seem to be neck deep in this.

"But you kept yourself surprisingly cool during that questioning and even now, which I admire you for. I've seen tougher men crumble under the right pressure. And you managed to avoid my partner like a pro! That gives me the impression that you've been doing this for a while now when you're not all alone in the middle of nowhere with them. But I'm not here to intimidate you, which is the impression I know you got when we first met. I wish to _help_ you.

"My partner noticed how your brother had been brought out of your hotel out-cold and carelessly slung over his 'roommate's' shoulder, and he also noticed the little kids that were brought out as well. Now I don't mean to make assumptions, but we can keep your children out of danger if you help us take down these aliens down. We can keep you _all_ safe and relocate you to a place where they can't use you anymore."

It took a second for what he was saying to fully sink in, and even then all Victoria could do was blink. Then it dawned on her—this guy was making the same assumption as James had mere days before! Of course there were some discrepancies, but it was all the same: the evil robotic aliens were manipulating the poor defenseless human to do their bidding. Was it seriously so hard to believe that _maybe_ they were just friends running away from the psychotic organization planning to do them harm?

Apparently it was because he was looking way more sincere than he had earlier.

Simmons took her state of shock in stride and tossed the other half of his candy bar into the trash receptacle before coming to stand in front of her, dark brown eyes as serious as ever as they started into her dark grey. "I know that this is a lot to take in and you might be a little skeptical, but we _can_ deal with these creatures. We have the weapons and experience. I'll give you a chance to digest all of this and make a choice: assist the ones using you or take a chance with us. I need to stake out all the escape routes from here for the takedown, but my partner is waiting out in our car—the black Suburban. Go to him and we'll take care of getting your brother and kids back."

He briefly rested a hand on her shoulder (to comfort her she guessed) and walked out into the parking lot on the other side of the building. Victoria just stared with wide eyes at his retreating back before snorting and leaving in the opposite direction. For being such an elite secretive organization, Sector 7 agents were so _dumb_. They were the epitome of close-mindedness, automatically assuming that the aliens had captured her and was holding her hostage while simultaneously exploiting her.

This was why no one could get along!

But enough of that, there were more important things at hand. They had to leave before Simmons came back because she highly doubted his meek partner would leave him behind to chase them. But…if they just left, then the Sector 7 lackeys would just follow. The whole point of leaving had been to shake the agents off their trail, not lead them straight to the others! It would be terrible for Optimus' team to land just be captured (or _killed_) by this group of humans. There had to be some way to keep them from following.

With this thought in mind, Victoria didn't even glance in the direction of the three currently oblivious Autobots and sought out the black Suburban that had been described to her. It was parked on the complete opposite side of the parking lot, sitting backwards in its spot for the perfect view of its targets. She headed towards it with a new sense of urgency while completely ignoring the confused vibe she inadvertently picked up from Bluestreak. Each second wasted gave Simmons time to return and give his partner the order to capture at least one of her friends, leaving over a fifty percent chance of also obtaining one of the sparklings.

And they just couldn't have that.

The confused agent she remembered from before slowly rolled down his window when she had reached the car and rapped her knuckles against the tinted glass. Victoria gave him the most beatific smile to have ever graced her face, "Your partner said you could help me."

"…yes?" the man hesitantly answered, obviously thrown off by the smile she was giving him. "We can."

"Good, but I also want to help you. You see, I know these guys inside and out, and they're way more than just ordinary cars. Their top speeds are _nothing_ compared any vehicle a human can design, and you're more likely to blow a fuse before even thinking about matching those speeds. But fortunate for you, I know exactly how to fix that!"

"Wha-" he confusedly started and could only stare as the woman forced the upper half of her body through the window in order to reach down and pull the lever that popped the hood open. "Uh, I don't…I don't think you should do that."

"Oh no, I insist," Victoria forcibly asserted while walking around to the front of the car. She spared a momentary glance at the others, finding Wheeljack pulling out of his spot. Good, she was a little worried that they wouldn't catch on, but trust Wheeljack to use that brilliant processor of his to be the first to put two and two together. She shifted her gaze back to the familiar sight of a vehicle's insides. "You see, they taught me a lot about their mechanics and I know how to make how cars go faster. Let's see…we need to get rid of this…"

Thus the woman proceeded to yank out anything she could. Hoses and wires were disconnected and she made sure to throw them about so that they couldn't be easily returned to their proper places. She hissed in pain when her arm pressed against part of the still heated engine but pushed forward with her current goal. She'd be a lot happier having a wrench to help her do more devastating damage, but alas one was unavailable. So she had to make do with simply disconnecting wires and hoses.

"What are you-" the balding man gasped when he finally staggered out of the vehicle to join her just in time to witness her managing to completely disconnect one of the hoses and toss it aside. "St-stop. Oh my God, Simmons is going to kill me."

"Okie dokie!" Victoria answered with more cheer than she probably should have considering the numbing pain her burnt arm was in. And the fact that she was vandalizing another person's car. "I don't really care. You're trying to hurt my friends and I don't like that."

"Hey!"

Victoria straightened up to see Simmons running across the parking lot at a breakneck speed and waved the hand that held another disconnected hose. "Hey yourself! I thought I'd give you guys a little hand."

She was proud to say that being thrown to pavement face down and her arms forced behind her was _not_ one of the things she had ever imagined happening to her. Of course she'd never imagined meeting aliens and reliving life from the age of eight onwards again, so maybe in the grand scheme of things having the skin of her cheek scraped off by the gravely pavement wasn't that big of a deal.

"Oh, you have made an enemy of me today!" Simmons snarled as he yanked her back up, managing to twist her arm as she stumbled at the sudden change in posture. Whether it was done on purpose or accident was hard to decipher. "I gave you a chance and you stomped all over it."

"Beat it into the ground is more like it," Victoria corrected, still riding on the sudden giddiness that came with committing her first crime. If this was how Sideswipe felt after all his pranks, then she _totally_ understood why he continued to do them despite his punishments. "And then let a wild herd of elephants stampede all over it. Sorry but your uniforms just aren't quite to my tastes."

Simmons blabbered on about something else and pulled her around to shove her into the back of the Suburban. Victoria caught a brief glance of Bluestreak sitting in the middle of the aisle, facing their direction and not moving at all. She shoved him away through their bond before yelping at being physically shoved across the seat. The door slammed closed behind her but she barely noticed as she awkwardly sat up to look out the windshield.

She sighed in relief at finding the parking void of Autobots and collapsed back onto the seat to listen to the muffled and angry yells of Simmons. A smirk flittered across her lips. They certainly weren't going anywhere soon.

Mission accomplished.

* * *

**AN**: First and foremost, please forgive my utter ignorance of cars. I love Transformers, but that doesn't mean I know anything about cars :( Secondly, this has only received a cursory glance, so I very much doubt that I managed to fix all of the mistakes. I'll likely read it again in the morning and find said mistakes then.

Thirdly, there was an anonymous review from last chapter saying that it was hard to keep track of the various plot lines and to "splice a few together". I honestly have no idea what that means, but the reason I don't separate the sections into individual chapters (if that's what they were talking about) is because I feel like they just…belong at those certain places. They're all happening simultaneously and help me transition from one thing to another plus serve as little reminders like "Hey! Don't forget about me! I may not be important now, but I will be!" And if I did split them apart, the chapters would be a whole lot shorter, so unless you guys want shorter chapters, then they can't be split apart. **But if there's any confusion whatsoever, please don't hesitate to ask**. I reply to all signed reviews when I can, but tend to forget replying to anonymous reviews in ANs :( (not that you're not important, I just forget)

Fourthly…I'm freakin' tired. I should stop putting this stuff off until midnight…Until next update :)


	16. Untitled

**AN:** I have no title or quote for this chapter D:

_"Thinking"  
:Com Talk:  
_**~Bond Speech~**

* * *

A New Version of Reality

Chapter Fourteen

Untitled

* * *

Wheeljack continued to ignore the incessant (more like _demanding_) notifications to enter a private chat via comm. link. He wasn't in the mood to listen to Bluestreak rage about having to leave one of their human companions behind to deal with a violent set of humans. It was bad enough that he had to deal with an irate Seekerlet who had woken up just as he had pulled out of the rest stop! He admired how smart Star was even in his current form, but he had just about had it with how bratty the sparkling could be when he put his processor into it.

So _sorry_ if the older mech didn't want to hear Blue yelling at him while a Seekerlet bounced around his cab and demanded to be let out to, most likely, run back to Victoria.

…fraggit! Now he was getting pings from Smokescreen, probably on the behalf of the human riding with him at the moment. Why couldn't they just cool their jets and wait until he found a reasonable place to pull over? Was that too much to ask?

"Starscream stop that!" Wheeljack snapped as the Seekerlet clung to the seat and began to gnaw on the headrest. It was like the mechling's answer to all of life's frustrations was to bite them. "If I have to pull over right now, then you are in big trouble mister."

Star let go of the seat long enough to blow a raspberry at the steering wheel before going back to his chewing. Oh, so the Seekerlet wanted to play that way, huh? Well, Wheeljack could play that way too.

The seatbelt for the seat shot out from where it rested unused and stretched out across the seat to snap into place. Star squawked as the strap slapped across his back, fitting uncomfortably between his wing nubs, and squeezed him to the seat.

Wheeljack let him worm around in his new prison before asking, "Are you gonna listen now?"

The answer was an angry hiss and more stubborn wiggling. The straps refused to budge against any pushing, wiggling, or hissing until Star finally stopped and began a new strategy: going completely limp and pathetically whimpering.

The engineer remained unmoved. "If you want to get out then turn around, sit down, and _be quiet._"

There was a tenseness in the air of the cab, reminiscent of the first day or two of their introduction, before Star reluctantly twisted around in the slightly slackened seatbelt and sat with his arms crossed across his chest and a scowl on his face. Wheeljack sighed with the relief of one problem being solved. Now to get the other two calmed down…

Wheeljack swerved as his rear bumper was angrily bumped and he swore uncontrollably as it happened again. _:Bluestreak! Do that again and I swear my next bomb is going right up your afterburner!: _The engineer angrily reeved his engine as the action was repeated despite his warning. _:You do not want to make me angry youngling!:_

A short and offended beep came from the younger mech, and he backed off a bit. But he continued to closely tailgate the engineer, which was pretty much the equivalent of "breathing down his neck" had they been in their bipedal forms. In the current state he was in (annoyed, worried, _officially fragged off_—it was a toss-up between those three), Wheeljack was tempted to slam on his break and put a little dent in the "youngling's" front. The only thing that actually kept him from doing just that was the conscious reminder that they shared the road with oblivious humans, who didn't deserve to be part of the automobile accident that was sure to follow, and that Bluestreak currently transporting two sparklings inside of him.

Speaking of which, if that youngling hurt those two sparklings because of his current frame of mind, he was gonna…he'd…

The consequences were so dire that Wheeljack couldn't even put words to them!

_:There's an abandoned scrapyard ten minutes off the exit up ahead.:_ Star squeaked as the engineer jolted in surprise at the unexpected sound of Smokescreen's voice. It took a moment for the mech to remember that the tactician had briefly served under Jazz's Special Ops before being transferred to Prowl's tactical unit. Apparently that had been plenty of time to learn how to hack into other blocked comm. link channels. _:It's one of the places I sometimes use to stretch my legs.:_

_:Going pretty far out to find a place to relax,:_ Wheeljack casually commented as he got into a lane to turn off the highway. He had to try and calm himself to avoid saying something he shouldn't when they found a place to talk. The sound of Bluestreak's engine growling right behind him didn't help.

_:Have to if I want to avoid being seen,:_ Smokescreen answered, having the tuition to pick up the mech's hidden agenda. _:I haven't been conveniently stationed in the middle of nowhere like you guys have been for the past few years. People around here see something out of the ordinary and immediately whip out their cellular devices to document it. That's probably how those agents caught wind of me—some random kid managed to see me, recorded what he saw, and then uploaded it Mybook or Facespace or whatever's popular now.: _

Smokescreen's attempt at distraction was admirable, but it still didn't help as they pulled into the abandoned lot. In Wheeljack's opinion the "scrapyard" Smokescreen had described looked more like an electronic graveyard to him, but that could have simply been because of his mood. He couldn't help that the assorted mounds of abandoned TVs, kitchen appliances, cars, and so on looked that way to him.

However it may have looked to the individual mechs, there was denying that it provided a sense of privacy being tucked a few minutes off the road and away from any human residences. They wouldn't be able to stay there long though.

Wheeljack barely had enough time to allow Star to climb out of his cab before an angry Bluestreak was on him. "How could you just abandon her like that!"

The engineer transformed to tower over the mech and attempted to keep the situation under control by calmly addressing the Praxian. "Now wait a minute Blue-"

"Don't 'wait a minute Blue' me! You just left—you didn't even try to help!"

"What would you have wanted me to?" Wheeljack snapped, vocal fins flaring in a nasty red. "Transformed to squish the humans and expose ourselves to the public? We're Autobots Bluestreak, and as Autobots we don't cross certain boundaries, squishing people being one of them."

"We could have used the holoforms; we could have picked her up before running; we could have done a lot of things, but You. Just. _Ran_!"

"Really? Then why did you just follow?" Bluestreak's door-wings, which had been flared in anger and hostility, suddenly fluttered and wilted in shame. "Yeah, that's what I thought. Victoria forced you to leave through the bond, and while I think that she has, once again, bitten off more than she can chew, I understand and respect her decision. We don't know the full capability of this human organization, but what little I've been able to decrypt from James' hard drive told me that they are more than capable of taking down a mech. Victoria did what she did to give us a chance to get to Optimus before those humans caught up; she understood that as a human, she's _way_ more safer with them than any of us, including the bitlets."

Bluestreak frowned as Wheeljack's calm explanation broke through the remainder of his anger. His kibble fluttered to reflect his intense thoughts as he suddenly turned away. "I'm going after her."

"Oh no you are not! That would ruin any head start that she might have given us."

"I don't care! The last time we let her go out on her own, she ended up being a prisoner in a psychopath's basement for almost three days. If you think I'm going to sit by and let her get hurt again-"

"This is a completely different situation. Do you really think I would let her go off and do something like that if I didn't have some kind of assurance that she'd be alright?"

"You let her walk right into James' trap without any kind of care."

The attack came from seemingly nowhere, and if it wasn't for the fact that Wheeljack was flexing the hand he had punched Bluestreak with afterwards, then the younger mech would have thought that their lack of attention with their surroundings had allowed a Decepticon to sneak right up on them. Bluestreak's optics flickered in an attempt to make sense of what had just happened, and he reached up to gently prod his newly dented cheek plate while sitting back up. Wheeljack glared at him with icy blue optics that he could only remember ever seeing on a Dinobot. "I told you not to make me angry."

"Hey!"

The two Autobots were suddenly reminded of their audience, and Bluestreak flinched when he realized that one of the sparkling's had been loudly crying the entire time. A sick pit of guilt dug its way into his spark when he found that it was Recall crying so loudly, now stuck in his human skin and tightly clinging to Eric. Topaz didn't look any better than her brother as she remained strapped into her car seat right where Bluestreak had unceremoniously dumped the sparklings to transform. Even Star was half hiding behind Smokescreen's large form, peeking out at them with an abnormal glint of fear in his ruby optics.

Eric glared up at them over Recall's head as his yell caught their attention like it was meant to. His eyes narrowed into a harsher glare as they stared down at him. "You two need to take a chill pill. _Pronto._ If you wanna be angry at anyone, be mad at Vicky. She's the one that played 'sacrificial lamb' and went crazy on the dude's car. But yell and complain to her later; we've got other things to do right now. Like the fact that we're even being chased to begin with, and the fact that _more_ of you are apparently coming in, like, less than a day."

"Aren't you worried about her at all?" Bluestreak asked, sounding slightly offended at the thought that the human might _not_ be worried about his sibling's safety. Eric should be just as worried as he was!

"Of course I'm worried. But what's sitting here and worrying over the situation going to do? And it sure as hell beats punching your friend because your worrying decides to play with your other emotions." At that statement, both fighting mechs looked understandably ashamed. It was easy to tell that neither had exactly gotten over what had previously happened, and to have their human companion kidnapped _again_, by similar people no less, didn't really help with the whole "keep calm and think" logic. "Besides I know my sister, and she'd be downright ticked off if we put any of ourselves in danger just to find her.

"So what are we gonna do?"

They were all silent for a minute, the only sounds being the faint noise from the highway and the sparse whimper and sniffle from the sparklings. It was Smokescreen who finally stepped up to break the silence with a determined flicker of his door-wings. "We should split up."

"What?" Wheeljack sputtered, his vocal fins flickering in an amusing way to emphasize the sputters. "What on earth makes _that_ sound like a good plan?"

"We need to assume that the humans may have called for backup," the tactician carefully explained. "If that is so, then they may have the capability to easily track us down. They have before, remember? We had to change our alt-modes and split up for a little while to lose them. It's easier for us to hide the tracks of one than to hide the tracks of a group."

"But we're all going to the same place," Bluestreak said in confusion. "And that's not very far from where we are now. How are we gonna lose them in such a short distance?"

"Unless we don't all go to the same place," Wheeljack mused as he began to understand Smokescreen's plan. "It'll be bad enough with Optimus' entire team touching down within the same radius; more of us there will just make more difficult to blend in."

"Uh, yeah, guys? I'm more of a believer of the philosophy that 'united we stand, divided we fall'. What if they all come after one of us?"

"That's the point behind changing our alt-modes," Smokescreen patiently explained to his human friend as Eric juggled a transforming sparkling. "It's likely that they've put out a BOLO alert for vehicles that match our descriptions. If I'm not mistaking, they did the first time as well. But as much as they believe they understand about us, they've barely scratched the surface. They don't understand that changing our alt-modes is fairly easy. So while the local authorities are helping them look for a custom red and blue 2001 Nissan Gloria, we'll be driving around as, say, a blue 2007 Nissan Altima."

"Sweet. It'd probably be sweeter if I was less of a comic nerd and more of a car buff."

"I like the idea," Wheeljack stated, bringing the attention back to him. "Blue, you'll keep going and meet up with 'Bee. Take the back roads instead of highway even if it does nearly double your time. Smokescreen, you'll take Eric and the sparklings to one a safe house and wait for us there. I believe I own a nice a little cottage along the border of California and Nevada…yep! I do in fact own a cottage there, and it is conveniently under another alias. Don't tell your sister—she doesn't need to know about the other properties."

"…I'm not even gonna ask."

"Good 'cause I wasn't about to tell. Once we've got Prime's group and we get Vicky back, we'll all meet up there."

"Where are you going?" Bluestreak asked with his wings twittering with suspicion. "If you're going after Vicky then I wanna go to!"

"Absolutely not. With your bond, you're too emotionally tied to this, and I'm not having an enraged woman come after me because I let you get caught. Believe me, it's better if you go join up with 'Bee then come with me. Besides, that defeats the purpose of us splitting up."

Bluestreak glared at the engineer, which inspired said engineer to glare right back. "Don't make me pull rank and make that an order."

The Praxian angrily huffed before swiftly transforming and leaving the scrapyard without another word. Eric barely had time to see the vehicle's slightly different shape when Recall, who had calmed down once Wheeljack and Bluestreak had, began to whimper and cry again. The man awkwardly jostled the sparkling in an attempt to calm him down but was rewarded with Topaz suddenly joining her brother. Eric erratically twisted his head back and forth between the crying sparklings. "Oh man. What do I do?"

"Give 'em comfort," Wheeljack answered before guiltily shifting into his own vehicular form. On some level the youngest sparklings had bonded with Bluestreak. Now that they were aware that Victoria was no longer with them and with the Praxian unknowingly "abandoning" them, it was reasonable to assume that they would be extremely upset and likely to look for the next person they were most familiar with: him. It would take them a while to get used to being with Smokescreen and Eric, but they were much safer with them then with him or Bluestreak at the moment.

Wheeljack wiggled on his axles to readjust to his sleeker Lancia form. He'd have to make some adjustment to his storage compartments, but sacrifices _had_ to be made. No need to dwell on it. All sarcasm aside, right now he needed to…avoid running over the thoughtless Seekerlet that just jumped in front of him!

Dirt went flying as Wheeljack jerked to the side to avoid running over Star. The Seekerlet huffed and began to shriek as Smokescreen belatedly snatched him up. Wheeljack transformed once more and sighed as the new addition of screams amplified the others. "Star you've gotta go with Smokescreen and Eric."

Star interrupted his screeching fit and began to gnaw at the hand holding him. Smokescreen minutely twitched but held fast against the assault. When it became apparent that the tactician wouldn't budge, Star quit biting and angrily twittered at the mech while reaching for Wheeljack. The engineer sighed and took the sparkling from Smokescreen hand. "Why can't you just cooperate this one time?"

Star huffed at the exasperation in Wheeljack's voice and turned to glare at the other mech. Wheeljack followed his gaze, and it finally dawned on him that it wasn't the _mech_ Star was glaring at but the _wings._ "Oh! Is that seriously the issue?" Star nodded and crossed his arms across his chest, refusing to even _look_ at Smokescreen's "inferior"wings. "Can't you just deal with it for right now?" The Seekerlet stubbornly shook his head. "You're going to be a little pain in the aft if you don't get your way, aren't you?" Star nodded an affirmative and smugly grinned when the engineer sighed in defeat. "You know, if Megatron had just given you what you wanted he probably would have won the war ages ago."

The part of the Seekerlet that was still Starscream understood the "compliment" and puffed up with pride. Wheeljack shook his head and turned his attention back to Smokescreen, who stared at him with a neutral expression nearly rivaling Prowl's. The subtle twitch of door-wings was the only thing that gave away the tactician's thoughts. "What are you going to do?"

"Take him with me of course." The scientist held a hand up to stop any protests. "Trust me on this. You guys are gonna have your hands full with those two without this one giving you more trouble."

Smokescreen glanced down at where Eric sat on the ground with Recall in his lap and Topaz still in her car seat beside him. The femmeling stubbornly ignored Eric attempting to rock her into a better mood while Recall kept his tears muffled by shoving his face into the man's shoulder. The mech turned back to Wheeljack just in time to have a small device shoved into his hand.

Wheeljack happily flashed at the confused Autobot. "Just attach that to the Energon convertor you've already got when it's time to feed the bitlets. You guys will have to stop somewhere and buy more bottles and maybe some toys since Bluestreak took off with everything. I'll give you a call when everything's A-Okay again. Oh! And you might want to get some supplies for Eric too because the cottage's utilities are all up and running but it's not stocked. Any questions? Nope? 'Kay bye!"

Smokescreen "blinked" as Wheeljack shrunk down with Star snug inside him before taking off. He stood there and allowed his new job to fully sink in until he was able to turn and acknowledge Eric's situation. "Well…"

"We are _so_ screwed," Eric finished, looking like he was about to join the sparklings in crying.

Smokescreen nodded and grimaced as Topaz's cries took on a whole new level of loud. There were reasons why he had avoided having sparklings during the peaceful times on Cybertron. Crying was—as the humans would say—just the tip of the iceberg.

**)(**

"I hate you."

"What? I find it hard to hear you when _I don't care_ vandal."

"You're enjoying this."

"You should have thought twice before messing with me."

Victoria could just _hear_ the smug grin that was likely to be on Simmons' face. She yelped as the car (not the one she had gone crazy on) went over a speed bump faster than it should have and threw her against the seat. Smug bastard—he was enjoying this way more than he should have. No wonder his partner was so loyal to him; making him into an enemy was a stupid thing to do.

"Sir," said partner tentatively started. "Can we _not_ drive through the parking lot like maniacs?"

"Oh come on Kramer! Where's your sense of adventure?"

"No offense sir, but this is why _I _drive."

Victoria would have snickered at that if she wasn't being thrown forward as Simmons suddenly slammed on the brakes. The seat belt strapped across her chest bit into her neck as it locked into place to keep her from flying into the seat in front of her. A yelp from that same seat signaled that Kramer had shared a similar fate, but Simmons joyfully cried, "We're here!"

The sound of doors opening and closing prepared the woman for her door doing the same, and she was wrangled from the backseat to stagger out onto the gravel of the parking lot. It was hard to stay balanced with her arms cuffed behind her back, but a pair of hands on her shoulders kept her from falling over. Who it was remained a mystery to her because she had learned that both men had the same strong grip, and as mad as Simmons was, he had been very restrained with physically hurting her. You know, after the initial tackling and shoving into the backseat.

"Sir?"

The one gripping her shoulders hummed in acknowledgement as she was guided through a maze of cars. Ah, so it was Simmons guiding her to wherever. Her indifference with this situation has suddenly taken a turn towards caring.

"Maybe we should…you know."

"Know what? I know a lot of things."

"You know…take that off of her."

"We can't uncuff a criminal Kramer. We are too close to company vehicles."

"I don't mean that. I mean…sir we're getting looks."

"Everyone always looks at me. I have that air about me."

"It's not you. It's…"

"He's talking about the paper bag asshole!" Victoria finally shouted as the more tentative agent trailed off again. She swiveled her head in the direction that Simmons would be, the bag on her head slapping against her cheek in the process. "I still can't believe you put this on my head. You literally just found it on the floor and shoved my head into it."

"What can I say? I like Burger King more than I do you."

"The one advantage to this is that I don't have to look at your ugly face either!"

Kramer muttered something about "acting like teenagers" as they passed the threshold of whatever building they had come to. The sudden rush of cool air ignited a colony of goose bumps along the exposed skin of her arms and legs, and a chill swept through her. This was way more preferable to the heat outside. "So what now? Are you gonna lock me in the basement to rot? Or do you have special cells for that?"

"As tempting as that is, it wouldn't be fair to the rats living down in the basements right now."

"You keep your cousins in the basement? You're worse than I thought."

Simmons released a sarcastic laugh as he shoved through another doorway. This room held a new smell to it, one that Victoria knew but couldn't name. She didn't have time to analyze it as she was suddenly grabbed by the upper arms and shoved onto a higher surface. A yelp escaped her as involuntarily rolled around before being yanked up into a sitting position. "Was that seriously necessary?"

"Was your terrible singing during the drive 'seriously necessary'? If anything testifies as torture, then it was _definitely_ that."

"Sir we should go."

"Right!" There was a harsh patting applied to the top of Victoria's head before the sound of footsteps began to move away from her. "Have fun kid."

"Hey! You can't just leave me with this stupid bag still on my face!"

"You should have thought twice before vandalizing a government official's car!"

Victoria growled as the door slammed shut, leaving her alone in the obnoxiously silent room. That jerk! So what if she had temporarily ruined his car? He could have been less…jerky about it. It wasn't like she had taken sledgehammer to the thing. That would have been a little more difficult to fix than replugging all the wires and hoses.

She shifted on what she was forced to sit on, which turned out to be more plushy than she originally realized, and sighed. What had happened to the days where she had actually thought things through before acting? Looking back now, it would have been a lot easier to tell one of the Autobots that they were being followed and come up with a plan from there. Wheeljack could've whipped out one of his little doohickeys and scrambled their communication signals, preventing them from calling for backup. Then they could've done something like slash their tires and run. It still would have taken over an hour for any help to arrive.

Truthfully, her lack of thought had probably been because of the sparklings. Now she understood why some mothers did irrational things to keep their children safe. The safety of your children took precedence over your own safety. If it had only been her and the Autobots, then yeah, she would have taken the chance. But the sparklings wouldn't have stood a chance against this single-minded organization. Until they came to realize that the only real threat came from the Decepticons, they wouldn't even begin to understand that the little "robots" were children. James was proof of that to her.

Her thoughts were interrupted as the door was thrown open and a skippy step entered the room before reclosing. Victoria braced herself for whatever Sector 7 agent she was about to encounter. She was ready for anything they threw at her; she wouldn't tell them anything. Absolutely nothing. No matter what they did.

The light of the room blinded her as the bag was yanked off her head, and she blinked at the happy grin aimed towards her. "'Ello! I am Dr. Zabrowski, and I shall be fixing your booboos today!

The woman blinked once more as the older gentlemen tsked at the paper bag that had been on her head before dancing over to the trashcan in the corner and tossing it in there. She glanced around the room, and the scent she had picked up on when first entering the room suddenly made a lot more sense. It was the sterile smell that plagued hospitals and doctor's offices, which fit perfectly for the apparent examination room she had been parked in. It looked like any other examination room she had been in as a child.

"So let's see here," the doctor continued in the same upbeat attitude as he picked up the clipboard he must have put down to yank the bag off her head. He glanced back up and seemed to finally notice that she was still handcuffed, gasping and tossing the clipboard aside to hurry over to her. "Oh no! You're still handcuffed. We can't be having that now can we? That naughty Simmons—he knows better than to treat a lady in such a way."

The cuffs were removed, and Victoria couldn't help but sigh in relief as she was able to move her arms again. She hadn't even realized that they had gone numb until she could do so. However, the relief was short-lived as Zabrowski snatched up one of her arms and twisted it slightly. "Ooh. That looks nasty. How did you burn yourself so badly?"

The woman blinked and looked down at her arm where the burns from touching the car's engine were plainly displayed in angry red. Funny, she'd completely forgotten those were even there. "I was vandalizing a car."

To her surprise, the doctor burst into a fit of joyous laughter as he turned to the cabinets and pulled out some gauze and other supplies. "Is that why Simmons looks so angry? He never likes when he's out smarted."

"I figured," Victoria answered and held out her arm when he approached her again. To her surprise, he grabbed her head instead and twisted it to the side for easier access to the scrap on her cheek. "Uh, I'm not trying to sound like I know how to do your job, but shouldn't you be looking at the burns first?"

"What?" He stopped to look down at said burns and waved them off to continue cleaning the scape. "They fine, they fine! This is just getting on my nerves. It's so dirty and nasty. I don't like the booboos on the face."

Victoria could no longer resist grinning at the man's behavior, wincing slightly as the movement pulled on her injured cheek. "There's no way a guy like you works for Sector 7."

"Hmm," he hummed and stepped back to grab a tube of ointment to apply to the cheek. "Actually, I've been working for Sector 7 for…thirty years? Yep! Straight out of residency, I was."

Victoria frowned as the ointment was applied and the gauze soon followed. The doctor remained oblivious to her turn of mood and moved on to her arms, quickly splattering a different ointment on them and wrapping them up with more gauze as a numbing feeling set in. "There! Any more booboos? Simmons only noted the ones he could see."

"Simmons sent you here?" she questioned with surprise.

"Of course! Standard procedure to treat all booboos upon arrival. He put that you went down pretty hard. Any pain somewhere else? No head booboos?"

Another giggle escaped the woman. "Please stop saying 'booboo'. It hurts to laugh right now."

"But booboo sounds much better than lacerations or contusions. It make patients smile! Now you say it hurts to laugh? Does it hurt to breathe?" She shook her head and narrowed her eyes as he gently poked her chest. "Probably just bruises from being tackled. Any more pain?"

Victoria hesitated. "Are you seriously a doctor? Or just some hack job hired to bandage cuts?"

"I'm really a doctor," Zabrowski said while looking her straight in the eye with a seriousness he had lacked throughout the examination. "Just general though, not a specialist. My duty as a doctor comes before Sector 7 business. What's wrong?"

Victoria twitched slightly under the now serious gaze. "I kind of…hit my head a couple of days ago, and I'm having some off and on headaches. I just want to make sure my brain isn't bleeding out while I remain oblivious."

"Hmm…let's go on field trip! To the MRI machine we go!"

Victoria hopped down off the examination table and cautiously followed behind the enthusiastic doctor, examining the bare hallways they traveled down to get to their destination. This enthusiastically _nice _man had been the very last thing she had expected to find upon her arrival. Everyone working for Sector 7 was supposed to be like James or Simmons: people who made it easy to hate them because of some annoying flaw or other reason.

Now she wasn't sure if that stereotype stuck to everyone working for the secret organization.

**)(**

_:Are you sure this is going to work?:_

Rumble almost banged his head against the tree he was hiding behind, but that would have signaled to the masked humans guarding the house that he was there. Even in the dimming light they would have still been able to see him. _:Of course I'm fragging sure! What is with everyone conveniently forgetting that I was _made_ for these types of missions? Frenzy's not the only one who's ever done espionage work; I'm even better than him sometimes!:_

There was silence, and Rumble carefully shimmied to the side to avoid being seen by the two man patrol walking along the edge of the tree line. He was a master spy. He knew when to move and when to blend in; when to be quiet and when to create a perfect distraction; and he knew that when it was time to retreat, it was time to retreat. No dillydallying to plant a virus in a mainframe just for laughs. He was a good spy, and he knew it. He was just getting tired of other looking down on him just because his twin could string a computer code better than he could.

_:I'm not doubting your ability,: _Thundercracker said, breaking the radio silence with his careful wording. _:I just don't want to have to explain to Soundwave how one of his Cassettes was offlined by a group of humans under my watch.: _

That somehow made Rumble feel a little better. _:Whatever. You just stick to your part of the plan and I'll do mine. By the end of this, you'll be able make your new master proud by finding his doohickey.:_

The symbiot knew that his words would rankle the Seeker's feathers and deliberately cut off their communications. It was meant to be a sign to Thundercracker that he was ready, but cutting him off at the right moment would create more annoyance, which Rumble liked to do. Annoying the crap out of other mechs was his specialty right behind spying. He tapped his thin fingers against the bark of the tree and waited for the signal for him to commence his part. Any time now…

The earth beneath his feet shook at an impressive level, and Rumble had to tip his hat off to Thundercracker. That had to have been the biggest sonic boom he'd ever heard the Seeker let off. His scarlet optics watched the humans around the house immediately turn on their radios and run towards the disturbance. A few were left behind, but not enough for Rumble to be hindered by.

Commencing phase one: sneak into the squishy stronghold.

Rumble dashed out of the trees and carefully flattened himself to the side of the house. He looked around to ensure that no one was there to catch him before sidling along the edge of building until he reached the corner. He cautiously peeked around and smirked at the humans' idiocy. They had the front of the house heavily guarded because of a gaping hole in that side of the house, but they left the backside virtually unguarded. Now it was completely unguarded thanks to Thundercracker's distraction.

The mech hurried to the backdoor, clinging to the wall to avoid the open space of the backyard and stay out of the view of the camera set up above the door (yeah, he saw that! Stupid humans…). Rumble carefully pried off the security pad embedded into the wall beside the door and twisted a few wires here and there before the light turned green and he was able to pick the lock without fear of the alarm going off. Humans were such amateurs when it came to technology.

He straightened form the crouch he had unconsciously fallen into while creeping and casually strode through a messy kitchen. Rumble had kept careful watch on the house and its occupants and if his observations were correct (which of course they were) then there shouldn't be any humans in the house at the moment.

Now where would he keep his computer with all the important information on it? Not in the room with the big hole in it that's for sure. Not even on the main floor really. That would make it too easy to be accessed by anyone. So either up or down. Down was too vulnerable with only one way in or out and he didn't know how long Thundercracker would be able to keep the humans distracted. So up it was!

Rumble decided to make the mission a little more interesting by dramatically prowling down the hallway. He had always liked it better when he went on missions with one of the others, like 'Beaky or…he just liked going on missions with others because it kept him from becoming bored until he made it to the computer he was meant to hack. Maybe he wasn't as good of a spy as he had thought…

Those thoughts took a backseat as Rumble stumbled upon a locked door upstairs. He grinned as he wheedled his thin fingers into the keyhole to pick it. In his opinion, locked doors always hid something good behind them.

"Jackpot," Rumble whispered to himself when the door swung open to reveal a computer setup. Nothing fancy or anything, just a laptop on a foldable table with some folders scattered around it. The symbiot carefully closed the door behind him and crept over to the computer. He thumbed through the folders before shoving them aside and focusing on the computer. He didn't have the patience for hard copy stuff—that's what Ravage was good at.

The hacker tapped at the keyboard to wake the computer (resisting the urge to roll his optics at the fancy M.E.C.H desktop) and went to clicking through the various folders on the desktop. _"Let's see here,"_ he thought to himself as he clicked from file to file. _"Ex-military dudes. Government dudes. Computer nerds. Gun freaks. What the frag are these humans up to? Where's the stuff I want?"_ He exited out of the folder he was in and clicked into another. _"Hello! What's this about?"_

He tapped at the keys and clicked onto the file named _The Proto-Project. _Stupid name in his opinion, but if it made the humans think they sounded smart then so be it. He clicked from file to file, pulling up all sorts of human science stuff and diagrams that made him want to yawn. Maybe these humans had nothing to do with Shockwave's crap. They were probably just another group of humans trying to overthrow their government or something. He read about that happening to a lot of human governments in the past.

The house shook on its foundation, and Rumble glanced over at the window. That was the signal to haul butt. The mech began to exit out of everything he had pulled up but paused. He glanced over his shoulder at the door and went back to the computer. He had a little more time before the humans got back. Besides, this was the more interesting file and might prove to be useful later.

Rumble allowed his hand to transform and plug into the USB port on the side of the laptop. A prompt appeared on his HUD, and he selected the files he wanted to download. He wasn't leaving this place empty handed. He began the download and carefully filed them in an empty space in his processor, as it had been specifically designed for. Once he met back up with Thundercracker he'd find somewhere more permanent for the files to go, like maybe find another human laptop for their use. Usually he would have given the information to the Boss, and then the Boss would file it onto the Decepticon mainframe, but that wasn't even vaguely an option at the moment.

A file flashed across his awareness, and he froze for a moment before bringing it up on the computer. He stared at it for a moment in complete surprise. "What the frag—"

He yelped as the wall beside him suddenly had a hole in it and twisted around to see where the attack had come from. Downloading information was always a dangerous thing when no one was around to watch your back. The process tended to distract a mech from what was going on around them, which left them very vulnerable. Fortunately, the human now fumbling with the shotgun as one of his arms fell into a fit of spasms wasn't a very good shot and had pulled him back into awareness with his surroundings.

Rumble disengaged from the computer, ignoring the warnings telling him that he had interrupted the download, and charged the human head on. The human must not have expected that because he went down easily, allowing Rumble to skid down the hallway and back down the stairs without a problem. Back on the first floor, there were angry shouts from the front of the house, and the mech cursed and dodged more gunfire as he escaped through the kitchen.

He burst through the back door and tumbled down the steps and ran towards the trees without a second thought. He cursed as a bullet managed to graze his thin armor before he was able to reach the safety of the woods. He could hear the humans shouting and their clumsy entrance to the woods behind him and snarled. _:Hey! Now would be a good time for a pick up!:_

Thundercracker didn't respond, and Rumble yelped as his foot got caught on the root of a tree. He went tumbling through the forest debris and cursed when a familiar twinge of pain washed over him. "Oh, you've gotta fragging kidding me! I friggin' hate this planet!"

"I think it went over here!"

"No I didn't you dumb slaggers!"

Of course that didn't deter the humans like he had hoped, but that didn't matter as Thundercracker faithfully killed the trees around him and snatched the symbiot up before the humans could reach him. Instead of riding in his hold, Rumble hopped into the cockpit and peered out the glass at the humans as they took off. He blew a raspberry at them as they futilely attempted to shoot the jet from the air. "Take that dumb squishies. We win!"

"What did you get?" Thundercracker questioned. "Or was that a complete waste of our time?"

"I gotta lot of stuff, but I don't think it's got anything to do with Shockwave." Rumble awkwardly twisted around in his seat, as if he was looking for something. "Give me a port so I can transfer the stuff I got."

"What? Of course not! Just tell me."

"It's easier if I just give you the files."

"The send me a data burst or something."

"I can't do that with this much information!"

"Then just send me the important stuff."

"Fine," Rumble said with a pout, slouching down into his seat like a disappointed child. "But what about all the other stuff I got?"

"Just sit on it until we find an appropriate place to put it." Thundercracker went silent as he accessed the files that Rumble sent him, and they wavered in the air as the Seeker read the file that had made the hacker pause. "That…why would they have that?"

"Beats me."

"And is that…?"

"Humans can't fake those pictures."

The Seeker remained silent as he read over the file once more. "How did a group of humans get pictures of a _sparkling_?"

"I don't know, but whatever they got from it, they're using it on something called 'The Proto-Project' or some slag like that. Most of the stuff didn't make any sense to me because it dealt with human science, but some of that stuff looked vaguely Cybertronian." Rumble's optics dimmed as he prepared and sent another file to the bigger mech. "You might wanna take a look at that too."

Thundercracker opened the new file. "…you've gotta be kidding me."

"Nope."

Thundercracker kicked his speed up a notch and flew away from the humans and the one lead they had found for Shockwave. "Why does everything keep coming back to that human?"

"Hey, Vicky was pretty awesome for a squishy…when you weren't ticking her off."

"Whatever you say." The Seeker sighed and traveled higher up into the atmosphere to avoid any human aircrafts. "Why would this group of humans even have a file on her? Even reading through it, it's obvious that she isn't special enough to warrant their attention. There's barely anything there at all."

"I don't know. Maybe there's something else I downloaded that will explain it, but I got interrupted halfway through by a stupid human."

Thundercracker sighed again as Rumble went silent, no doubt skimming through the other files he had found. He glanced back over the two files Rumble had sent him before filing them away to be looked at later. He didn't like this. A lot of things were getting far too coincidental for his liking.

**)(**

Bluestreak sped down the empty streets without a care. Most of the residents of the town were tucked fast asleep in the beds right now, so it didn't hurt to be a little more reckless than usual. It allowed him to let off the last bit of anger he had trapped inside of him.

He shouldn't have just left Victoria behind like that! No matter the fact that she practically pushed him away and Wheeljack and Smokescreen were already gone. He was still mad that Wheeljack had done that too, not even waiting to see what the woman was even doing. They wouldn't have just abandoned a comrade in battle like that—why should it be any different when applied to that situation?

And then they just split up. He could understand sending the sparklings away just in case those people tried to take them, but he should have been allowed to go with Wheeljack to find Victoria. How was the engineer even planning to find her? Ask around for a woman in her early twenties that looked like she was being held against her will? He could have used their bond to find her.

Wheeljack probably wasn't even looking for her…

Guilt suddenly washed over him, and he slowed down to a reasonable speed and altogether stopped at the stop sign for a four way stop. That was a horribly wrong thing to even think. Of course Wheeljack was looking for her; the engineer might not have been bonded with her, but he still cared. He'd do anything in his power to find the woman before she got hurt.

As the anger he had been holding onto for the majority of the day began to finally fade away, Bluestreak was able to finally understand why he had been sent to meet up with Bumblebee. In his state of mind at the time, he would have done something royally stupid and screwed things up even more, like maybe getting caught himself or putting the sparkling in danger…

And the guilt just deepened. How could have just left without a word to the sparklings? Recall and Topaz were probably extremely upset with his and Victoria's disappearance, and then they got stuck with Smokescreen and Eric, two people they had just met today. Topaz was probably having an even harder time with having to be handled by Eric after her experience with James. Star probably liked that he was gone though. At least he had managed to make one person happy.

Eric had been right; worrying about this wasn't going to do anyone much good. Victoria was a strong woman, and she could survive until they were able to find her. Right now, Bluestreak should focus on finding Bumblebee and warning Optimus about the human threat. If anyone would know what to do about it, Bluestreak was confident that it would be the Prime. If not him, then Jazz had always been the mech to go to when a rescue was in order.

Now where was Bumblebee?

_:'Bee?: _Bluestreak said after opening a comm. link channel to the scout. _:'Bee, it's Blue. Are you there?: _

A loud burst of static came over the link and Bluestreak shuddered at the painful sound. The sound cut off before Bumblebee sent a reply. _:Busy right now!:_

_:Huh? With what?:_

_:My human! These terrible four-legged creatures are trying to eat him!:_

Bluestreak sat at the empty intersection at a complete loss of words. What kind of four-legged creature that ate humans would live in an urban town? Maybe it was a bobcat or something… He jolted out of his thoughts as a squad car went barreling past him, the sirens sounding almost out of place in its silent surroundings. Well, that didn't really bode well. _:'Bee, where are you?:_

The scout simply pinged him a set of coordinates, and the sharpshooter followed the path the squad car had taken. He rolled past a junkyard and watched as the police he had been following slammed a teenager to the hood of the squad car. He kept going and turned the corner to nearly run smack into a yellow Camaro with black strips down its hood. The yellow car reeved its engine in greeting, and Blue did the same. _:Hey 'Bee!:_

_:Hi Blue!: _Bumblebee cheerfully greeted and gently bumped their front bumpers together. The scout rolled back and a sad air surrounded him. _:They took my human.:_

_:Aw,: _Bluestreak replied with true empathy. _:You'll get him back.:_

That didn't seem to cheer the other mech up like he had hoped. _:I don't think he likes me anymore.:_

_:Why would you think that?: _

_:I tried to save him from the mean creatures, but he threw his keys at me and ran away. I thought he would appreciate me saving him.:_

_:Don't worry 'Bee,: _Bluestreak said as they left the junkyard to tail the cop car. Bumblebee was a good guardian and wasn't about to let his charge out of his sight. Bluestreak suddenly felt insufficient when compared to the scout. There was a reason why guardian and sibling bonds were two completely different things. _:It just takes humans a little while to understand what we are. Sometimes they're a little freaked out when what they thought was just a car comes to life, but they get over it eventually.: _

_:How long did it take your human to get used to you?:_

_:Eh, I don't think that's a really good comparison. Our circumstances were kind of…special.: _

Bumblebee didn't question him any further as they parked across the street from the police station. They watched as Sam was dragged into the building, sputtering and protesting the entire way, and then the night was silent once more. Bumblebee looked ready to sit there the entire night, so Bluestreak sighed and prepared to do the same._ :What were you guys doing in that junkyard?:_

_:I was sending the signal to Optimus and the others. Sam must have followed me without me realizing. I thought humans slept during the night.:_

_:Most do, but I learned that some teenagers stay up all night especially on the weekends. He probably heard you leave and followed.: _Bluestreak paused before asking, _:How long will it take Optimus' team to land?:_

_:They'll probably be here close to the same time tomorrow. When are Wheeljack and the others gonna be joining us?:_

_:No time soon,: _Bluestreak answered somewhat cryptically, instantly piquing Bumblebee's curiosity. _:So how long do you think it will take for Sam's parents to come get him?:_

Despite his curiosity, Bumblebee knew well enough when to leave something alone and diverted onto the other topic without another word. The two young mechs sat there for most of the night just talking about random things until Sam's dad showed up to take him home. After seeing the boy safely home, they decided to ride around the town and wait until the morning when Bumblebee would return to the human's home and begin to explain everything.

**)(**

Oh, Simmons was _so_ going to kill him.

That was the one and only thought going through Kramer's head as he anxiously waited for Simmons to show up. He had been sent ahead to make sure that the woman—Victoria Anderson: newly labeled vandal and currently on Simmons' top ten most not liked list—had been placed in the proper interrogation room. The one that had the wobbly chair, flickering light that shone straight down on the suspect, and the vent that pumped out air twice as cold as the rest of the building. Simmons tended to get the most information out of that room, hence why he liked it so much.

But he had screwed up.

Well, technically it hadn't been _him_, but how was anyone going to blame Dr. Zabrowski for anything? He was the best person in his department—the head of it actually. You couldn't just blame the head of a department for something.

Kramer nervously shifted, moving the folder he was holding from one hand to the other. "Oh, how am I going to tell Simmons?"

"Tell me what?"

A high-pitched screech came from the man as he turned around to find the very person he had been worried about casually standing behind him with a cup of coffee. He stuttered for a moment before forcing himself into a casual pose similar to the other man's. "Uh, hi sir…got yourself a cup of coffee, huh?"

"Yeah I did," Simmons answered as he snatched file away to thumb through it. Kramer began to fiddle with his hands now that both were free. "This is it? Everything you were able to dig up on the girl?"

"Yeah, and even that was hard." He casually stepped in front of the door when Simmons attempted to reach for it. "She's pretty much off the radar for the most part. No previous criminal records, sealed or not. The last W-2s she filed had her working at a privately owned coffee shop in her home town. After she graduated high school in 2005, she dropped out of sight. No employment records, credit cards, _anything._ Kinda makes you wonder how a person's able to do that."

"Not really," Simmons said over his partner's forced chuckles. "Kramer…we've gotta problem."

"Uh…what's that?"

"You're in my way." The senior agent pushed the other man out of the way to finally reach the door. "What's got you so strung up?"

"Uh, wait! Don't you want to hear what Dr. Zabrowski found?"

Simmons stared at the inwardly panicking man before sighing and releasing the doorknob. "Sure, what did Zabrowski find?"

"Well, he ran an MRI and discovered that she had suffered from a concussion not too long ago, which might explain her erratic behavior earlier."

"Doesn't change the fact that she did it. Is that it or do you want to stall me even longer?"

"Actually there is something else." Kramer reached out for the file and pulled out one of the last papers. "This is one of the MRI scan that the doctor took earlier. He said he actually ran the test a couple of times to make sure that it wasn't a glitch in the machinery, but every image came out the same."

"What?" Simmons said as he took the paper to peer closer. "She gotta mirror in her pocket or something? What could possibly put off a glare like that if it isn't machinery malfunction?"

"Zabrowski was completely stumped. He'd never even seen anything like that, but he's a little concerned by it. Whatever it may be is centered directly over her heart, so he asked that you don't put any extreme stress on her at the moment or he'd track you down and force you through the entire mandatory physical for all Sector 7 personal working out in the field."

Simmons visibly shuddered and slid the paper back into the folder. "Fine, no stress. Now can I go in?"

"Actually, maybe you should reschedule the interrogation for tomorrow. After all you look really tired."

"Guess what? So is she, which makes her more likely to spill her guts. Now stand aside and watch a pro at work."

Kramer attempted to protest once more but received a door to the face as Simmons entered the interrogation room. He straightened his tie and turned to address his prisoner when he paused. And stared. And stared some more. "What on earth are you doing?"

Victoria almost fell of the table, prompting the agent hurry over in case she needed to be caught, but righted herself just time. "I was dancin'!"

"Why?"

"'Cause I was _bored_," she stressed and hopped down off the table by jumping into the chair and using her foot to tilt it over and fall to the ground. She giggled as she fell with it and staggered towards the wall. Then she drunkenly twirled around to face him, arms spread wide as if to embrace him. "You kept me waitin' handsome."

Simmons stared at her with a loss for words as she swayed around the room towards him, sometimes tilting too far to one side and erratically waving her arms around to keep her balance. "What the hell happened to you?"

"The nice leprechaun gave me the good stuff!"

"'Leprechaun'? Are you talking about Dr. Zabrowski?"

"I like him. He fixed all my booboos, and he's shorter than me!" She suddenly twirled around until she faced him again with a sad expression. "Where's my little birdie gone? 'Jackie won't tell me!"

"Yeah," Simmons said, dragging out the word as he backed out of the room. Victoria didn't seem to care as her drunken stagger took her back to the table to pitifully lie on. "You know what? I'll see you in the morning. Bright and early."

He closed the door before she had a chance to respond and turned to address Kramer, who looked at everything but him. "What was _that_?"

"Well," Kramer started, nervously scratching the back of his neck. "Turns out she doesn't handle pain meds very well. Zabrowski gave her some for her headaches and other pains, and within an hour she was like…well, _that_. He said she should be completely better in the morning."

"You couldn't have just told me that?" Simmons said as he used the folder in his hand to swat the man across the head. "Keep her in there to detox, and I'll be back in the morning."

"Yes sir." Kramer resisted the urge to salute as Simmons began to leave. "Uh, sir? What am I supposed to do?"

"Keep an eye on her and make sure she doesn't fall off the table and crack her loopy head."

The junior agent dutifully nodded while on the inside he cringed. Once Simmons had turned down another hallway, he reached over to the door and cracked it open to peek inside. Victoria still lay on the table, only now she was on her back with her head and legs dangling over the sides. She didn't notice him as she began to loudly sing about being blue. He cringed at the sound of her voice reverberating off the walls and quickly retreated.

He was _so_ not going in there tonight.

* * *

**AN:** To answer another anonymous review (though, I imagine others may have the same question too): the reason why Victoria and the others don't know about Sector 7 is because they only watched the third movie (DOTM) which has no mentions of Sector 7 in it (that I am aware of…). Basically they never went back and watched the first two movies, which was purposely done because I didn't want them to know what happens in the first movie :) As for the other question, I don't want to give away any spoilers ;P

The last scene was a tie-in to _Pint Sized_ chapter "Illness". I thought it would be funny to revisit the fact that Victoria and pain pills don't mix very well ;D The song she was singing at the end is "I'm So Blue" from VeggieTales…don't judge me. Those singing vegetables are awesome.

And I'm currently reevaluating my updating schedule (for like umpteenth time) and might put out another update next Sunday, so watch for it :3


	17. Surprises Galore

**AN:** Sorry the update's a day late, but for some reason I couldn't log in yesterday and I had to wait until a good time to update today :( But we have officially bypassed the amount of reviews got _Pint Sized _has, which extremely awesome. Thanks for all those reviews, alerts, and favs XD

Also some dialogue for the chapter is directly from the '07 movie, which I'm more than positive is highly obvious ;) I did, however, attempt to change a few scenes because obviously they wouldn't play out exactly as they would in the movie with some extra characters involved.

_"Thinking"  
:Com Talk:  
_**~Bond Speech~**

Time Units  
Vorn: 83 years

* * *

A New Version of Reality

Chapter Fifteen

Surprises Galore

**Those who are easily shocked should be shocked more often.** **― Mae West  
**

* * *

"Who's a good doggie?" Miles gushed as he slathered shampoo onto his huge dog. The Mastiff looked at him with big watery eye, and the blond fondly patted it on the head. "Yes, you are. Who wouldn't leave his best friend on the side of the road to walk two hours back home just so he could flirt with a jock's concubine?" The dog whined and shifted around in the tiny kiddy pool as a huge brush began to rub the shampoo into its fur. "I know you wouldn't buddy. You know why? Because you're _loyal_. And you and Sam need to have a talk about loyalty."

The teenager jumped as the headphone he had in his ear switched from Black Sabbath to the cheery tune of his generic ringtone. He sighed and kept one hand on his dog's collar and used the other to reach down and blindly answer the phone clipped to the waistband of his swim trunks. "Joe's Crab Shack."

"Miles? Miles, listen to me. Listen. My car, it stole itself, okay?"

Miles allowed his eyebrows to come together in confusion as he went back to scrubbing his dog. "What are you talking about man?"

"Satan's Camaro! In my yard. It's stalking me!"

"Dude calm down," Miles said with a chuckle as his friend's voice cracked at the end. "If you want new conversation starters, I'd be happy to give you some."

"I am not joking Miles!" Sam squeaked in obvious panic, and Miles could hear Mojo growling next to the phone. Oh, it was serious when Sam hugged the Chihuahua to his chest. Very serious business…pfft! It took all of Miles' will power not to burst into laughter. "Does it sound like I'm joking?"

"I'm guessing your little 'date' didn't go very well."

"Come on man! Are you still stuck on that? I am being stalked by Satan's _freaking_ Camaro and all you want to do is start in on that 'bros before hoes' crap?"

"Well _so-rry_ man," Miles said in an offended voice as he stopped scrubbing his dog once more. "I can't help that I was hurt at being thrown out of car just because you wanted to act out some hidden fantasy with a girl that probably didn't even know your name."

"Says the guy who traded me to his great aunt for his hot cousin during his last family reunion. Do you know the kind of nightmares I had after that? That I _still_ have?"

"Dude! It's proven fact that hot chicks attract other hot chicks. I can't help that my cousin didn't like you and wouldn't go to the mall with me if you came along."

"Okay, okay, fine!" Sam agitatedly said as he cut the excuses off. "Let's let bygones be bygones man. I'll never bring the great aunt thing up if you never bring that up again, okay?"

Miles carefully thought about the terms, ignoring the frantic sounds from Sam's end, before nodding. "'Kay man. Truce. Now what's really going on?"

"I told you! My car stole itself last night, and now it's back to take my soul!"

"Okay Sam. Let's take a deep breath. Did you eat spicy enchiladas last night before going to bed?"

"Dude, this was _not _a freaking hallucination brought on by spicy Mexican food! This is the real deal, and –oh my God!"

The blond flinched at the high pitched shriek that came from his friend. Sam had to have the girliest shriek he had ever heard. Hopefully that would be solved once the brunet actually hit puberty. "What? What's going on?"

"It multiplied!"

"What?"

"Satan's Camaro went and had a Satan baby! Oh man, oh man—I gotta go!"

"Sam-"

"No Miles! I've gotta get away from this thing! If I don't come back then get those magazines out from under my bed before my parent's find them."

The call cut off after that, and Miles was left staring at his dog in extreme confusion. "What the hell was that all about?"

**)(**

Victoria blinked. That was really all she could do at the moment. Until she figured out how to safely roll out of the chair without falling on her head this was where she was staying. And no, she didn't particularly want to know how she had found herself in this peculiar position: completely flipped around in the armless chair with her head where her feet should be and vice versa. Something told her she wouldn't like it. She had a hard enough time remembering where exactly she was…

The woman yelped as the sound of a door suddenly banging open caused her to jolt in surprise and fall sideways from the chair. She groaned at the new position that forced her cramped muscles to be stretched and glared at the source of her new pain. Everything was suddenly coming back to her.

"Good morning!" the friendly doctor greeted her despite the fierce glare. He nearly skipped to the table situated in the middle of the room and put down the two cups and box he had been balancing in his arms. "Well, it's not _really_ morning so much as afternoon. Hmm, more like half past three but who cares for specifics?"

"Half past three? As in three o'clock in the afternoon?" Victoria asked, preferring to stay on the floor. For some reason she couldn't feel her legs yet… "How could I have been out for so long?"

"I don't think you clocked out until seven this morning. You don't do very well with the booboo medicine, do you?"

Victoria's eyes widened in horror, and she jumped up from the floor, swaying at the dizziness that accompanied the sudden change in position. "_Please_ tell me I didn't do anything embarrassing."

"Ah, would dancing on the table like a distinguished lady of the night be embarrassing? If not, then it was beautiful!"

Victoria collapsed into the nearest chair with a mortified groan. Of all the torturous things they could've done—that was beyond cruel and unusual! Or at least unusual. "No wonder Simmons isn't breathing down my neck already; I must've sung like a loopy bird."

"Loopy? Yes, very loopy indeed. Like a bird? Eh, maybe like the ones that don't go 'tweet tweet'. More like 'caw caw' and other not so pretty noises. I like your song choice though!"

The brunette glanced up long enough to glare at the doctor merrily sipping from his Styrofoam cup and chewing a chocolate donut he had taken from the box. "What did you do, spy on me all night?"

"I prefer careful observation. You not say much sense, so no more heavy duty meds for you."

Victoria snorted and leaned back in her chair, starring at the second cup and box that Zabrowski continued to pull donuts from. She must not give into the temptation of the donuts… "I could've told you that. Why else do you think I suffered through those headaches instead of popping a Tylenol or something?"

"Very strange reaction it was. Like Simmons at last office party. Never give man more than three tequilas. Very important lessons learned that night."

"I'll remember that," she replied while eying the donuts. Now that she thought about it, she hadn't eaten since lunch the day before… "Where is our esteemed Simmons? If I wasn't a fountain of information last night, then surely his ugly mug would've been the first I saw when I woke up."

The doctor "sneakily" scooted the box closer, finally breaking the woman's resistance. She rolled her eyes at his triumphant grin as she picked out a chocolate covered donut. If it had been anyone else, she would have ignored the "peace offering," seeing it as just a way to make her talk. But Dr. Zabrowski hadn't done anything to warrant the suspicion besides being associated with a group that she wasn't terribly fond of at the moment.

Zabrowski continued to smile as she politely nibbled on the treat, now resisting the urge to just shove it into her mouth as her empty stomach demanded sustenance. "Not exactly the most healthy meal but better than just crackers from the break room. The coffee is good though."

"I don't drink coffee."

"You poor girl. Your life will never be complete."

Victoria laughed at the doctor's quick and sincere response. "You didn't answer my question."

"Well I'm not supposed to tell you." Zabrowski glanced around the room as if to assure that they were the only two around before leaning in close to dramatically whisper across the table. "_But_ I heard that Simmons got called back out into the field."

"Really?" Victoria whispered back, playing along by adding the right amount of scandalized tone. She couldn't help but picture them as a pair of gossiping housewives.

"Really, really," Zabrowski confirmed and leaned in even closer. Victoria automatically did the same. "Apparently some 'suspicious phone call' caught the attention of our lovely organization, and Simmons and a team were sent to investigate. He probably won't be back 'til very late. So I gonna keep you company!"

The big smile he had put on his face for the last statement dropped in response to the sudden tension coming from the woman. "Aw, what's wrong? You no like me? I feel sad now."

"No, no! It isn't that," Victoria rushed to assure him, feeling bad for the kicked puppy expression that appeared on the older man's face. It was like telling Bluestreak that he couldn't have any more sweets. "It's just…what was the call about?"

The man hummed and glanced around the room in thought. He seemed to come to a decision and leaned his elbows against the table. "Now I'm not really in the 'know' about these things, but I know a guy, who knows a girl, who knows this guy that's easily persuaded in the presence of certain desserts and works in the department that monitors worldwide communications."

"Wow, I just became more paranoid."

"As long as you don't say certain words then you safe. I'll tell you all about that later. Anyways, apparently some kid called his local precinct to report a car theft."

Sudden dread made the donut she had just devoured not taste so great. "What's this car look like?"

"A yellow 1976 Chevy Camaro with black racing strips." The doctor paused to tilt his head in question when Victoria dropped her head into her hands. "Is that bad?"

"Please tell me this call didn't come from a place called Tranquility."

"How did you know?" Zabrowski's eyes widened and he leaned in even closer, all signs of playfulness vanishing. "You really _are_ involved with the N.B.E.s, aren't you? And not in the prisoner-being-forced-to-help kind of way either."

Victoria glanced up at the camera situated in the corner of the room, but the man waved off her suspicions. "I turned the camera off before I came in. I don't like the spying."

"Says the man who watched me all night."

"As a doctor concerned for his patient. Nothing more."

She stared at him for a moment. "If you're telling the truth, then how did you do that? Turn the camera off? Maybe someone's turned it back on by now."

"No I don't think so. I clip a wire, so no more spying in here for a while! Simmons will be sad. He liked this room best."

Victoria released a forced laugh. "Do you seriously work for Sector 7? Because you don't act very loyal."

"I'm a bigshot. I can get away with anything! As long as I fix the booboos that is. But how did you get involved with the big robots? They don't seem to like humans very much."

"It's a long story that you probably wouldn't believe."

"And you don't trust me enough with the secrets."

She smirked at the correct statement. The doc was a nice guy and all, but she wasn't about to spill her guts to him. After all, he _did_ still work for Sector 7. "I will tell you that you're wrong about the 'big robots'. Not all of them hate humans. In fact, they want to help protect us."

Zabrowski hummed, but his expression was too neutral to tell what he really thought. "Why would they want protect us?"

"Because that's just how the leader is. Their planet has been completely ravaged by a civil war that's been going on probably centuries before Earth was even formed. He doesn't' want the same to happen here, and he hopes by making alliances with the humans will allow his troops to find another home."

"But a civil war can't be fought alone."

"Yeah. Those are the 'bad guys', the ones with red eyes. Some of them just don't care for other life, and their leader is the stereotypical villain: corrupted by power and wanting to rule over everything. But I do know a few aren't completely insane."

Zabrowski slowly nodded. "So, the big robots—they have a civil war that leaves their planet with too big booboos to fix they leave. They find earth and the baddies want to enslave us, but the goodies want to be friends to make new home."

"That's the very dumb downed version of it, yeah."

"But how they find earth? If alien robots exist, then more alien worlds must exist too."

"Well, that's another part of the story. To keep the bad leader from creating an endless army, the good one had to launch an artifact into space. That's one of the reasons why their planet is dying. The artifact landed on earth, which of course is what's gonna attract them here."

"What's this artifact look like?"

"A cube I guess. I mean, it's one of the nicknames they have for it. I've never seen it in person though. It kinda hasn't been found yet."

"What's it do?"

"It makes babies."

Whatever answer the doctor had been expecting, it definitely wasn't _that_. "Ah…what?"

"It makes babies."

"…come again?"

Victoria rolled her eyes at the stunned expression on the man's face. Was it seriously so hard to believe that alien robots could have babies too? Okay, so maybe it was a little difficult to digest the first time, but was it really necessary to repeat it so many times? "Yes, giant robots have babies. How else do you think they repopulated their planet?"

"They build more?"

"Then they'd be nothing more than 'robots'. The Transformers aren't just lifeless programs. They're as sentient as you and me."

"So the artifact makes itty bitty baby robots?"

"Yes," Victoria answered as her suspicions began to rise once more. "Why so many questions doctor? Is this just curiosity or for Sector 7?"

"Just curiosity," he assured with a grin that didn't reach his eyes. He stood up from the table and nudged the remaining donuts towards her. "I need to go do doctor things. I'll see you later!"

Victoria hummed in acknowledgement and started tearing away at the rim of the Styrofoam cup he had left behind as well. She didn't want to think too much about the guilt she had seen in the doctor's eyes before he left.

**)(**

If only Wheeljack could find a wall stable enough to bang his helm against. He had a nasty habit of doing that when he got too frustrated. Maybe that was why most of his inventions blew up later—he'd knocked a few screws loose in the process of venting his rare bouts of extreme annoyance. That, or Ratchet had knocked them loose. He was betting on the latter really.

He was just _really_ ready to throw the flimsy hard drive in his hand into the middle of the small woods they were in and be done with it. James—that man seriously better hope he was dead. Because at the rate of all the encryptions and Trojans he had to pause and get rid of before they had a chance to cause some major damage, he was beginning to second guess his normally humorous nature. Oh, the times he wished he was just a Decepticon and didn't have to be worried about feeling bad for squishing certain humans.

A frustrated hiss from beside his pede caused him to look down at the Seekerlet who was practically strangling the little device he had conjured up. When Wheeljack had pulled off into the path of trees hours ago, he had given the Seekerlet a bundle of small things from his subspace to keep the mechling occupied while he worked on the hard drive. He had been more than certain that it would contain _something_ to point him in the right direction of finding Victoria.

If only James hadn't been as paranoid as Red Alert after a serious case of the glitches.

The scientist leaned against one of the trees with a sigh and almost smirked as Star did the same against his pede. "Your project not turning out the way you wanted it to either?"

Star glared at him for the obvious question and strangled the jumble of wires and other hardware again. Wheeljack envied his ability to vent his frustration. Strangling the hard drive wasn't an option though. "You wanna try again? Can you feel Vicky?"

The Seekerlet chirruped and covered his optics to concentrate. It seemed like a very sparkling thing to do, and it was moments like these that Wheeljack wished he could forget it was Starscream and fawn over the adorableness. Star went completely before sticking one hand up into the air and slowly pointed in one direction. Wheeljack was about to praise the mechling when Star stuck up his other hand and pointed in the complete opposite direction. And then twisted around to point in one more direction.

"And here I thought it might actually work this time," Wheeljack said with a sigh as Star attempted to figure out which direction he really wanted. "Maybe I should have let Bluestreak come along. I mean really? I'm just as emotionally involved in this as he is. At least he'd be able to point us in the right direction. Here we are twiddling our thumbs and getting nowhere with this hard drive. I don't even know what made me think James would've had any secret Sector 7 stuff on it anyway."

He sighed again and looked down at Star, who was glaring up at him like usual. Wheeljack gave him a playful glare in response. "Don't look at me like that. It was a good idea at the time. Besides Victoria would have my head if the kid went in guns a' blazin' to save her…not that bringing you along will make it any better. As a matter of fact, I could've thought a lot of things through a little more…"

Star nodded in agreement and went back to fiddling with his "toy." Wheeljack shook his head at the Seekerlet's blatant lack of caring for the current situation and began to pack up their little camping site. Star was smart, and he knew something was up with Victoria's sudden disappearance and the splitting up the three Autobots did nearly a day ago. But his tiny sparkling processor wasn't allowing him to worry about it now. Wheeljack had a feeling that the sparkling in the former SIC was placing complete faith in the adults to solve this problem.

It made Wheeljack wonder how long it had been since Starscream had had such blind faith in someone. The first time he had ever seen the Seeker, the horrors of war had already turned him into the conniving, cowardly Second-in-Command that the Autobots all loved to hate. He wasn't even sure if the Decepticon had fully trusted his trine.

Maybe the fact that Starscream had ended up as a sparkling with limited memory wasn't such a bad thing.

"You ready to head out?" Wheeljack asked as he stood up. Star grunted and turned his back on the engineer to signal that he was not in fact ready to leave. The Autobot shook his head at the cheekiness of the mechling and scooped him up in his hand. Star squawked in displeasure at being manhandled and glared at the mech's flashing "grin". "Come on now. You chose to come along, and we can't stay out here all night. We'll have to do some tracking the old fashion way. And by old fashion, I mean hacking into a government satellite and peeking into super-secret files until we find something good. It can't be too difficult of a thing to do."

Star twittered and clicked in aggravation before suddenly going silent and gawking up at the sky with bright ruby optics. Wheeljack tilted his head in question and followed the Seekerlet's gaze. The sky above them twinkled brightly with billions of stars, and Wheeljack could see the many more that the naked human eye could never dream of being able to see. He could remember the times when he had been a youngling and spent hours gazing at the constellations that surrounded Cybertron and being awed by them every night.

The Seekerlet in his hand made all sorts of noises as he pointed up at what had caught his attention, and the engineer finally spotted the four specks of light that were getting brighter and closer with each second that past. He watched as they broke through the atmosphere at an angle and continued to hurtle towards earth until the trees surrounding the two bots cut them off from their view. He sighed at the slight tremor he felt beneath his feet and looked down at the excited sparkling hopping around in his hand as he began to walk back towards the road. "Looks like the cavalry has arrived. We'll let them worry about finding the AllSpark while we find Vicky. How's that sound?"

Star paused his excitement long enough to give the engineer a long look, which caused Wheeljack to flash his vocal fins in offense. "What? I can find her! I just…hit a little bump in the road. But I told Bluestreak I would, and I will. Now let's roll out!" He laughed as he stopped to allow Star to jump out of his hand for him to transform. "I see now why Optimus likes to say that. Very catchy phrase, and it just rolls off the tongue."

The Seekerlet shook his head and clambered into the smaller car. He missed Wheeljack's other form—it had provided way more room than this even if the mech had forgone most of the interior to keep the mechling from feeling too claustrophobic.

The door slammed shut as Star comfortably huddled into the backseat, and Wheeljack rolled back onto the road and headed towards their next destination. What that destination was was currently a complete mystery to him, but he figured by the time they got there, they'd know what it was. From what little he had been able to hack from James' hard drive, Hoover Dam seemed like a good place to start. After all, it wouldn't have been mentioned like a gazillion times if it wasn't special.

**)(**

Bluestreak sped through the streets like a maniac, not because he _was_ a maniac, but if he didn't pick up the pace then he would be _really_ late. As in, White Rabbit from _Alice in Wonderland_ kind of late. He didn't like to point fingers and play the blame game very often, but this was totally Bumblebee's human's fault. If Sam hadn't bust out of his house in a complete panic this morning then Bluestreak wouldn't have had to split up for 'Bee to chase down his charge.

So Bluestreak had spent the majority of the day doing absolutely nothing but driving around in a big circle. He hadn't been in Tranquility for a day and already he could drive through it with all of his sensors off!

Not that he didn't understand why Bumblebee had sent him away. Sam was already having panic attacks by seeing his guardian; having the both of them chase him down would have probably given the poor kid a full blown heart attack.

It was still Sam's fault though.

The sharpshooter's excitement began to rise as he turned off the road and into a series of alleyways. Bumblebee had sent him a set of coordinates to meet up at not more than thirty minutes ago, and Bluestreak was more than ready to see the others again. Nearly an entire vorn had gone by since the last time he had seen any of them at the dreary Autobot base he, Wheeljack, and Smokescreen had left from.

The only thing that would've made the reunion even better was if they had all been here to enjoy it.

The smooth purr of an engine and the sound of tires skidding around a corner behind him made the mech tense for a moment before relaxing at the familiar feel of Bumblebee's EM field against his bumper. Maybe he wasn't as late as he had thought he was.

Bluestreak pulled over to the side of the roomy alley and watched as Sam and a female human tentatively climbed out of the car. Should he go ahead and transform to introduce himself? Or wait for Optimus to get here and do the introductions? The Prime couldn't be very far off now, and he didn't want to ruin whatever the mech had planned.

"Hey!" Sam yelled as he hurried around the Bumblebee to stand by the girl. "Y-you were outside my house earlier today with…him. Am I being stalked by crazy cars now?"

"Sam, don't be so dramatic," the girl said, though a small fluctuation in her voice broke the bravado she attempted to exude. It was obvious that while she wasn't as on edge as Sam, she was still slightly uneasy with her current predicament. The dark haired teenager turned her attention back to him, and he couldn't help but see a little bit of Victoria in her stance. Both women obviously didn't like to show any weaknesses. "Are you a robot too? Can you tell us what's going on?"

To transform or not to transform—that was the question! This just seemed one of those moments where Optimus' regal speeches ranked higher than his child-like babbling…but what the heck! It wasn't like Optimus was going to punish him for explaining a few things. That just meant less time that the Prime would have the waste doing the same thing.

The two humans jumped back when he began the transformation sequence, and he was reminded that not all humans were used to their kind like Victoria had grown to be. He couldn't even remember the last time she had flinched at the noisy sound of him or Wheeljack transforming. Once the transformation was complete, he carefully kneeled down to their height and smiled. "Hi!"

"Uh." The humans looked at each other, obviously not expecting that type of greeting. It made the Praxian wonder what exactly they _had_ been expecting. "Hi?"

"I'm Bluestreak, and that's your guardian Bumblebee since he can't exactly tell you himself." Bumblebee transformed, making the humans quickly spin around at the noise, and made a whistling sound to accompany his wave. "You cleaned up really well 'Bee! I'm liking the new alt-mode."

The scout's radio clicked on to a round of hearty applauds and a man repeating _"Thank you! Thank you very much!" _This prompted the teenagers to smile, which Bluestreak knew would make Bumblebee happy. Now that Sam was beginning to understand that he wasn't a threat, 'Bee wouldn't be upset for the boy not liking him. Now they can be the friends that Bluestreak knew they would become; happy endings all around! For 'Bee anyway.

"What exactly are you?" the girl asked once Bumblebee had gone silent again. "What are you even doing here?"

"Uh, I think Optimus should be the one to explain. He shouldn't be that far off now; he's a lot better at explaining things. But I can tell you in really simple terms that we're sentient aliens from a planet called Cybertron, and we call ourselves Autobots, so me and 'Bee and are Autobots too. And we're kinda here for different reasons. I mean, we all essentially want the same thing but some of us, like me, are here for other reasons too. Like 'Bee's been looking for Sam while I came here with another group to look for someone else. We were all supposed to show up here too, but we ran into some trouble, and I was sent ahead to basically not screw things up, which now that I think about it with the way I was acting yesterday I probably would've _really_ screwed things up, and Optimus better hurry up because we're wasting a lot of time just sitting here." Bluestreak paused when he noticed the humans staring at him with wide eyes. "What?"

"You like to talk huh?" Sam commented after a moment. He gestured between the two mechs, and Bumblebee tilted his head to the side while Bluestreak's door-wings fluttered with curiosity. "It's like complete opposites. You don't talk and he doesn't _stop_ talking."

"Sam."

"What? I'm like, stating the obvious. And it's keeping me calm at the moment!"

Bluestreak was prepared to comment (and pretty much prove Sam right) when he went silent and turned to stare down the alley. Bumblebee did the same, which prompted the two humans to turn also, and they all silently watched the huge Peterbilt casually roll towards them. Both mechs stood at attention like good soldiers as Optimus began to transform, slowly rearranging parts to accompany his big form. The sound of transforming behind them signaled the arrival of the others, but Bluestreak's attention remained on Optimus, who bent down to address Sam. "Are you Samuel James Witwicky, descendant of Archibald Witwicky?"

"I'm starting to wander why they all know your name," the girl whispered to Sam, trying to be as discreet as possible. She looked slightly embarrassed when Bluestreak broke his posture to humorously snicker.

Sam, not entirely amused by his girlfriend's attempt at humor, noisily swallowed before answering. "…yeah."

Optimus looked between the two humans before continuing. "I am Optimus Prime."

"Hi Optimus!" Bluestreak enthusiastically greeted, no longer able to resist doing so. "I sorta just explained what we are, so I hope you don't mind. But I did resist telling him why you're here and why he's important and stuff. I thought you'd be better at explaining it."

Optimus glanced over at him with a controlled frown, but the sharpshooter was able to pick up on the familiar twinkle in his cerulean optics that signaled the Prime was highly amused. Behind him, someone burst into a fit of laughter, making the humans jump at the sudden sound and Bluestreak to twirl around and tackle the shorter silver mech standing directly behind him. "Jazz! I can't believe you're finally here; I've missed you so much!"

Jazz's laughter settled down into a brief giggling fit as he was lifted off his pedes by the taller Praxian in a giant hug. He wrestled one of his clawed hands from the tight embrace and reached up to pat Bluestreak on the helm. "Long time no see Baby Blue! How you been gettin' along?"

"Really good. I like living on Earth! Other than having some not so nice humans trying to chase us down, it's not so bad. I've missed you guys though. I mean, being with 'Jack and Smokey's not so bad, but you know Wheeljack's pretty much a walking hazard, and Smokescreen sometimes likes to overanalyze things. We found Vicky though! She was really little when we found her, so I got to through school with her and learned that human kids are just as brutal as younglings. "

"Mikaela, the robots are having a hugfest. Should we interrupt them?"

Mikaela rolled her eyes at Sam's poor attempt at humor and lightly punched him in the shoulder. While the boy dramatically nursed his "injured" shoulder, Bluestreak put Jazz back on the ground and turned his attention back to Optimus with an apologetic frown. "Sorry I interrupted sir. I was just excited to see you guys."

The bulky black mech standing off to the side snorted and crossed his arms over his chest. "'You guys'? More like just Jazz. I don't see you jumping on Ratchet."

The chartreuse mech standing beside him "rolled' his optics and shook his head as both Bumblebee and Bluestreak looked ready to give the Weapons Specialist hugs just because of how grouchily disappointed he seemed. "Aw. It's not like 'Hide! Jazz is just more huggable because you've got big cannons."

Ironhide looked rightfully appeased as he fondly patted said cannons. "That I do. Any of you punks feeling lucky today?"

Optimus was ready to chide Ironhide for scaring the humans by pointing the weapons he was so fond of at them when a "pocket" on the Weapons Specialist's side slid open for a sleek black form to jump out of. Before anyone could react, the metallic quadruped had crossed the short distance between the mech and the humans, and a shrill scream pierced the night air.

"Mikaela it's eating me! It's eating me Mikaela! Call 911!"

Bumblebee's relaxed posture suddenly tensed into battle readiness and his battle mask slid into place as his hand transformed into a powerful weapon. Jazz on the other hand was once again thrown into a fit of raucous laughter, and Optimus merely sighed and shook his head as the feline symbiot stuck his butt into the air to happily shake it while giving Sam enthusiastic "kisses." Honestly, the feline acted like such a canine sometimes. "Ironhide."

The black mech stopped chuckling at the tone in his superior's voice. With a sigh, he stepped over to lift the cat off the screaming human. "Nuisance, what have we talked about? You can only pounce on Prowl outside of battle."

The happy air around Nuisance was instantly deflated, and he went limp in the mech's big hand. Bluestreak felt for bad for him until Ironhide began to gently rub behind the symbiot's ears, inspiring a chorus of content purrs. If there was one thing that could be said about Ironhide, it was that he took excellent care of his "pet," sometimes even spoiling the already spoiled cat.

Optimus made a noise as Ironhide attempted to take a step back into his original position, and pointedly gestured at the boy gasping for air and clutching his chest while Mikaela dragged him back up. Ironhide grunted in obvious displeasure at what he knew Optimus was ordering him to do. "Sorry kid. He's normally a good soldier, but seeing you two must have gotten him…excited."

"Excited my ass!" Sam blurted out as he was finally able to stand on two feet again. "That thing nearly ate me. I almost died!"

"Quit whining," Ironhide grunted, all politeness used up on the apology. "If he had wanted you dead, you wouldn't be standing right now."

Sam and Mikaela both jumped as the bulky mech suddenly doubled over, clutching his helm in pain while loudly cursing in every language he knew, which with the help of the internet made that quite a few. Nuisance, who had been dropped after the sudden attack, landed gracefully on all fours and obediently sat beside the cursing mech as Ratchet scowled down at him. "The humans' heart rates have already escalated to a dangerous level. Stop making it worse you buffoon!"

Meanwhile, Jazz was draped across a car dying of laughter with only a vaguely concerned Bluestreak to watch over him.

Optimus released a heavy sigh and rubbed his temple in slight exasperation as Ironhide began to curse his CMO until that same CMO whacked him across the helm with a wrench again. And then his current First Lieutenant's systems began to overheat because he currently lacked the ability to stop laughing long enough to cool them. This was definitely not what he had had in mind upon landing on Earth, and it _really_ didn't inspire much respect for his men from the humans.

"I apologize for the…unusual greetings," the Prime said once things had finally calmed down and Jazz was able to function correctly again. He gestured at each mech as he named them off, finding no need to be fancy with introductions now. "You have met my Weapons Specialists Ironhide and his companion Nuisance. This is our medic Ratchet, and my First Lieutenant Jazz. And of course Bluestreak and your guardian Bumblebee. "

"Yeah, we met," Sam commented as he looked up at Bumblebee. "Not exactly the greatest first meeting though."

Bumblebee made a whining noise which quickly turned into the equivalent to a hacking cough for a human as Ratchet suddenly shot a laser at the scout's neck. The medic ignored the surprised looks the humans were giving him and tapped at the laser. "I thought I told you _not_ to use your vocal processor until I fully fixed it." The scout's door-wings gave a rare wiggle of cuteness that was completely ignored by Ratchet. "No excuses youngling."

Mikaela turned her full attention on Optimus as the scout continued to exude innocence while the medic shook his head. She took a step forward and bravely addressed the mech that towered above her. "Why exactly are you here?"

Optimus was prepared to answer when a message on his HUD asked permission to open a private comm. link. He glanced over at Bluestreak, whose door-wings now twitched with apprehension. _:Is there something you wish to address Bluestreak?:_

The slight tilt of Jazz's head hinted that he too was part of the link as Bluestreak answered. _:I think we should really get moving. Not that I have anything against staying in a dark alley at night, but your landings would have caught the attention of a lot of people, and some of them aren't exactly fond of us. We should get the glasses with the AllSpark coordinates and get out of here before-:_

_:'Fore what?: _Jazz asked with a frown at the younger mech's sudden cutoff. _:Blue, how come 'Jack an' Smokey aint 'ere with ya? Or Vicky fo' that matta'? Ah imagined you two bein' practically inseparable by now.: _

_:I'll tell you later,: _Bluestreak strategically deflected. _:We should just stop wasting time right now and get going. We can explain everything on the way.:_

Though Optimus didn't fully approve of Bluestreak keeping secrets, at the moment he was correct. Each second they wasted was more time for the Decepticons to track down the location of the glasses and ultimately the Cube. Bumblebee had already informed him before they had arrived that Barricade and Frenzy had been in the area, and though temporarily taken care of, there was no doubt that they would soon return.

He dropped the private call and turned to Mikaela, who looked up at him expectantly. "I will explain everything on the way. Right now, it is imperative that we retrieve the glasses that once belonged to Archibald Witwicky."

"Wait, why would you need those?" Sam asked as the mechs around him began to transform into their alt-modes. Mikaela watched them with a certain level of awe as each performed an intricately different transformation while Sam ran a hand through his dirty brown hair. "How do you even know about them?"

"As I said," Optimus reiterated as he too transformed. Once he was in his new Peterbilt disguise, he opened one of his doors as a clear indicator for what he wanted the humans to do. "I will explain everything on the way."

Both teenagers looked at each other before Sam mustered the courage to climb in first. Once Mikaela was in as well, Optimus shut the door and rolled down out of the alley, leading the pack of oddly mismatched vehicles behind him.

**)(**

Victoria absently wondered who it was that first suggested the use of solitary confinement. It was necessary to know that little fact so she could commission a time machine from Wheeljack to go back and brutally murder said person. What kind of sick man could "invent" such a cruel method of torture? She was going absolutely bonkers sitting in this tiny room by herself, and this was coming from a self-proclaimed introvert who enjoyed solitude in liberal moderation!

Now she felt bad for putting the toy-formers in the Jar-of-Solitary-Confinement years ago.

The woman casually swatted the air over what used to be her cup, scattering the fragments of Styrofoam all across the tiny table. Oops, now she had to put the pieces back together…_again. _Now she had to resist the urge to repeatedly bang her head against the table. Someone give her the meds again! At least while she was loopy she could entertain herself.

"Oh thank God!" she shouted as the doorknob began to jiggle with signs of life on the other side. "I don't even care if it's Simmons; just _please_ get me out of here!"

Dr. Zabrowski blinked at the woman as he shut the door behind him. He switched the laptop he held from one arm to the other as he cautiously stepped further into the room. "I sorry I was gone so long. The laptop is good at the hide-and-seek. Hmm, what wrong with you?"

"I've been sitting here for _hours_ with absolutely nothing to do; I've got cramps in places I didn't even know could get cramps; and I'm freakin' _starving_. And that's only the beginning."

"But they should've-" The doctor stopped himself and looked up at the camera in the corner before releasing a nervous laugh. "That's right: I turn the camera off. They kinda forgot about you then…"

Victoria glared, and it took every bit of what sanity she had left not to lunge across the table at the doctor. "They forgot about me? You're only damn prisoner in this place?"

"In their defense, the monitoring shifts change every three hours. With the camera not working, the new people wouldn't have even known you were here. But Simmons isn't back yet, so that's a good thing, yeah?"

"I think I've completely lost my sanity. Is that a good thing?"

"Eh…no. Not really." Zabrowski placed the portable computer on the table and kept his arms draped across it as he sat down. "I need to ask you something about what you told me earlier. This AllSpark, does it only make babies?"

Victoria glared at him, being in no particular mood to answer questions now. She wanted a huge feast, some clean clothes, and a nice soft bed to sink into. So sue her if she didn't want to answer questions. "Why would you care? Does Sector 7 want to destroy the only source of life for a sentient race when some are only looking for a new home? Because they can find a way to make more babies."

The man stared at her with wide eyes. "They can reproduce on their own? This is the most exciting medical discovery of my career! How do they do it without this magical cube?"

"Hours ago you wouldn't even accept that they got babies from a cube and now you're all giddy about being told how they do it? What made you a believer all of a sudden?"

The guilt she had seen earlier was visible on the doctor's face once more as he fiddled with the computer he had brought. "Truthfully, I don't want to believe because it changes much of what I have I come to believe. I have seen the aftermath of some of the destruction these beings have created and believing they are evil makes it a lot easier to not care where they came from, why they're here, or even about them in general. It's how Sector 7 has functioned since its first real encounter with these creatures."

Victoria stared at the man and leaned back in her chair. "What do you want doctor? Because if it really does change your opinion, then good. That's the whole reason I told you in the first place. But if you just want to know other ways to get under their armor then forget it. I understand why you'd want to know how to defend yourselves against some, but I've seen how some of your agents work. They can't differentiate between good or bad; they've become too sensitized to just kill on sight."

"I know and it's sad. But how much different is that from how we treat each other, hmm? In any war, the soldiers are taught to shoot first ask questions later. It takes lots to change that learned impulse. But each baby step forward is one step towards changing it."

"That's a horrible pun," the woman said with a blank stare while doctor broadly grinned. "And what do you plan to do? Flash a baby Transformer in front of the troops and hope they don't kill you in the crossfire."

"Not _that_ extreme. And you'd be surprised at how many wouldn't shoot if everything is properly explained first. Not all of them are as 'corrupt' as you would probably put it. Just look at me!"

"You're just an oddball. Oddballs are in a completely different category than normal people for me. They're cool."

Zabrowski's eyes took on a new brightness as he slapped on a goofy grin. "I'm cool? Yay! I've never been cool before."

Victoria was about to roll her eyes when the laptop on the table jolted on its own volition. The doctor immediately removed his arms and jumped out of his seat as the device broke apart, twisting and turning in a familiar way to the woman. She jumped up in surprise as well and gaped at the miniature Transformer staring up at her with bright red (_frightened_) optics. "Where the hell did you find him?"

"Uh…is this bad time to tell that we found a cube very long time ago?"

The woman slowly dropped back into her seat and watched as the former laptop attempted to find a way to escape off the table. "I think you've got a story to tell me doc."

* * *

**AN:** This chapter turned out to be shorter than I thought it would, maybe because I actually wrote it out on paper than on the computer like usual. I had also intended for a brief appearance by Skywarp, but then I thought about it and the timing was just too off in my opinion. So no Skywarp or TC/Rumble this chapter D: But have fear, they shall appear in the coming chapters ;D


	18. A Long, Long Night

**AN:**Hope no one minds, but I'm fudging some information about the AllSpark's discovery in the IDW movie comics. I try to stay as close to canon as I can in aspects like that, but I made a mistake when skimming through it on the wiki the first time and I was too far gone writing to realize it until I was done writing it (Research = Fail). If you have no idea what the original backstory for the discovery was…then just ignore my AN :D

_"Thinking"  
:Com Talk:  
_**~Bond Speech~**

Time Units  
Breem: 8.3 minutes  
Orbital Cycle: 1 month  
Solar Cycle: ~1 day

* * *

A New Version of Reality

Chapter Sixteen

A Long, Long Night

**To be conscious that you are ignorant is a great step to knowledge. - Benjamin Disraeli.**

* * *

Victoria stared out into the darkness that plagued the landscape outside of the car. Only the headlights of the old car broke the endless darkness by illuminating the road in front of them as they unashamedly broke the speed limit set for the empty road. It was the first time in a very _long _time that the woman had actually felt afraid to be in a vehicle.

And it didn't freaking help that Dr. Zabrowski continued to take his hands off the wheel to lean over and dig through the glove compartment in front of her.

"Would you like me to find something for you?" Victoria asked not for the first time.

"No, no!" the man cheerfully answered as he sat back up to glance at the road. "I'm just looking."

"For what?"

"Sleepy pills. I know I shoved them somewhere from last time."

Victoria stared at what little she could see of the doctor with wide eyes. "Please don't tell me you're going to pop some pills while driving. I'm still trying not to panic about you going _eighty miles an hour_ in the dark."

"It not so bad. I good driver!"

As if the world meant to respond to that statement, the car suddenly jumped as it ran over an object in the dark. Victoria's arms automatically shot out to brace against the dashboard as Zabrowski nervously laughed. "Whoopsie! Poor turtle-I hit so many out here."

Victoria spared the man a brief glare before going back to clinging to the edge of her seat. Her already low confidence in the older man's driving abilities just took another nosedive to the level of _"Get Out of the Freaking Car Now!". _"I'd really like to know where it is we have to rush so quickly to, if you don't mind."

"There's no rush!"

"Then why the hell are you trying to break the sound barrier!"

"Why you so nervous? All that confidence back at the interrogation room has gone kaput!"

The brunette didn't fully appreciate the hand motions that went with Zabrowski's "kaput!" "Because I don't enjoy putting my life in the hands of a crazy speed demon, especially a human one whose old age has seriously slowed his reflexes."

Victoria banged her head against her window as Zabrowski pointedly took his hands off the wheel _again_ just to spite her. "I take offense to that! I have good reflexes. Like a ninja!"

The woman simply groaned and refused to look at the speedometer as she felt the car speed up. Her first time in a non-sentient car since her elementary school days and she was having to fight off a panic attack. That was just great; just one more phobia to contend with the others. Spiders, snakes, the dark, and old men in cars-what a great set of phobias to have.

There was a buzz from the backseat, and Victoria turned just in time to see the new sparkling tentatively climbing through the small gap between the seats to join them up front. He froze and stared at her with bright red optics before quickly ducking into Zabrowski's lap and shifting back into a laptop. She stared at it hard enough to decipher the minute trembles it exhibited before flinching back and blinking at the man in complete bewilderment. "Did you –did you just _flick me_ in the forehead?"

"Of course," the good doctor insisted, petting the sparkling in his lap. The trembling actually stopped under the comforting touch. "You're scaring little Toshi!"

"Toshi?"

"Yes. He was a Toshiba, but I shortened it to make it sound cuter." Zabrowski balanced the steering wheel between his knees and gently placed the computer on the seat between them. "Go on and say hi Toshi! She not so scary as she looks."

The laptop sparkling didn't like being put closer to the woman, and his trembling increased as Victoria carefully put her hand next to him. It saddened her to see the sparkling in such a state. This was worse than how her own sparklings had reacted when she first found them, and she didn't look forward to hearing what had made him this way.

"Hey Toshi," she started in a soft voice, but the sparkling's only reaction was more trembling. "I'm not going to hurt you sweetie. There's no reason to be scared."

"Oh, he not scared." Zabrowski took his hands off the wheel _again_ to pick up Toshi and toss him into the woman's lap. The laptop's fans spurred to life and it began to heat up as Victoria gaped at the man's actions. "He just shy. I try to teach him to get over shyness, but it hard when he supposed to stay secret. Now say hi to Miss Not-So-Scary-Lady."

Victoria held up her hands as the computer popped open and a shy "hi" popped up in small text in the upper left corner of the black screen. Then more text flooded the screen as numerous versions of the word appeared in different fonts and languages that she couldn't even begin to name. "Whoa..."

"Yeah, he's a little chatterbox when he gets started." Victoria couldn't resist smiling as the greetings stopped and denials such as "Am not!" began to pop up. "He's a very good boy though."

Victoria nearly relaxed at the undeniable fondness that accompanied the doctor's statement, but the tenseness that had been with her since discovering the fourth sparkling still remained. "You still haven't told me your story. You just dragged me out of that room without another word and shoved me in your car."

"We can't be late for the helicopter."

"I thought you said we weren't in any rush."

"I lie. It just makes me feel better not to think about my impending doom. That's why I need the sleepy pills."

"Oh great. We're flying to where exactly?"

Zabrowski opened his mouth to reply when Toshi the laptop sparkling began to slowly transform until a small bipedal being sat in Victoria's lap. He stared up at her with optics that no longer shown with fear but tentative curiosity, and a soft beep came from him. Victoria stared back at him, temporarily ignoring the man sitting beside her and his awful driving skills, and observed the tiny alien as he slowly reached out to touch her dirty shirt.

To her surprise, Toshi looked nothing like the three sparklings she had been taking care of. There was no softness of protoform to him; instead it looked like he already sported the mini-version of a full grown mech's armor. There was no faint glow of a spark anywhere around his tiny chest, but there were some oddly placed green neon strips downs the sides of his arms and gently lit up in short intervals. A mask hid any mouth he may (or may not) have had, and on the left side of his otherwise smooth helm was an antenna not that different from what she remembered Optimus having.

Toshi tugged on her shirt once and shyly ducked his head when he had her attention. The action was absolutely adorable and no different from how a human child would behave around someone new. Perhaps her earlier worry of something extremely heinous happening to the sparkling had been completely wrong.

"Ah, he so cute!" Zabrowski gushed as Toshi began to play with the hem of her shirt. "It been almost thirty years since he popped into being, but he still cute as first we met."

"Thirty years?" Victoria asked in honest surprise. She looked down at the mechling who had moved on from her shirt to poking at a seam in his tiny armor. It made her wonder how old Recall, Star, and Topaz really were. Wheeljack had never given her a straight answer on that. "You've had him for that long?"

"Yep…well, maybe more like twenty," he amended before pausing and taking a deep, I'm-About-to-Tell-a-Story breathe. "Sector 7 was founded very long time ago after an explorer named Archibald Witwicky found very interesting discovery in Artic. The really secret things they did is kept top secret for anyone not Director, but a few years later when Sector 7 was growing a little bigger, they find _very_ interesting thing in Colorado River. Interesting enough to have whole dam build around it! Markings on it were similar to 'Iceman', which they renamed as N.B.E. 01, and N.B.E. 01 was moved to dam also. That cube sat there for many years giving off faint traces of energy that no one knew how to use. Then I come in!"

"Wait a minute," Victoria stopped him as he puffed up with pride. Toshi went back to poking her shirt before beginning to slowly inch closer to her. "I thought you were a doctor. Why would they call you in to look at the Cube?"

"I minored in alternate energy studies; so while I fix booboos, I solve the oil crises on the side!" The woman shook her head, and he boisterously continued. "So they put me on a very tiny team to study the Cube when my doctor abilities were not required. We studied it from every angle; tried to decipher what its symbols might mean; sang it sweet serenades and gave it lovely dinners by candle light—"

"_Zabrowski._"

"I just joking! You can't take joke?" He chuckled at her glare and briefly watched his sparkling putting its helm on the woman's chest, seemingly listening to something. "But it still made no difference. Nothing we did could tap into that energy.

"Then one night I stayed late to finish some calculations because I would be on the medical team the next day. I was completely minding my own business—thinking more about what takeout I'd be ordering that night than numbers because, you know, I was young then—when the Cube suddenly began to spark! I was terrified to be honest; I was all alone with a huge sparking object right after an incident of some poor fellow working on N.B.E. 01 all alone showing up dead the next day looking like very bad fried chicken. I was even being morbid and coming up why my own obituary when one of the sparks flew off and landed on the computer I had been working on moments before. Then it just goes silent again. No sparks; no strange humming. Just quiet.

"If I remember correctly, that was the night that I began to acknowledge a higher power working in my life and thanked it most generously for sparing my life. Also, I became the man you see today: extremely handsome, wise, and not with a stick up my rear anymore! I got more ladies because of that…"

"Okay," Victoria interrupted for a second time as the doctor got a disturbingly dreamy look on his face. "I think you're wandering off into the wrong memory there old man. What happened next?"

"Ahhhh…well, once I got my bearings back, I discovered that my computer was gone! I look all over for it but couldn't find it anywhere. It was getting really late, so I finally just decided to give up. You know when you're alone but say stuff out loud anyway? That's what I did. I said, 'I give up and am going home!' and out from beneath a table pops out this little robot! Of course, I freak out a little because a little robot appearing from absolutely nowhere. That would give any man a heart attack. But it ran right to me anyway and looked at me with those big red eyes. And transformed right in front of my eyes into the very computer that I had been looking for!

"This was a monumental discovery I had made! The big rock cube we had found could make little robots from computers. I took little Toshi with me and showed my team leader the next day. He was absolutely flabbergasted and ordered that we figure out how to reproduce the event and find a way to control that energy."

Zabrowski went silent and all the former ease he had displayed turned into tense apprehension. Victoria hugged Toshi closer without realizing what she was doing, but the sparkling had completely gotten over his shyness by now and cuddled into the embrace, accidently jabbing his little antennae into the bottom of the woman's chin. "What happened after that?"

"Not very good stuff I'm afraid," the man said in a low, sad voice. "I was not there when it happened, but my team found a way to make more little robots. But it didn't go the way it had with me. Instead of getting a cute little Toshi, they got very angry little robots with very dangerous guns. I lost very good friends that day."

"I'm sorry," Victoria said after a moment of silence with only the sounds of soft whirring coming from Toshi. The little sparkling had made himself very comfortable with his helm resting on the woman's chest and his arms and legs wrapped around her torso. He was a very friendly little thing once he got over his shyness. "I don't understand why they'd come out acting like that. Wheeljack never said anything like that could happen…they're still just sparklings."

"Whatever happened, it took all of my team save me," Zabrowski said with a small sad sigh. "I was just lucky enough to be on medical call that day and avoided it. Our project was shut down, and I was left with Toshi. I was young and didn't know what to do with him, so I simply kept him. He could still function as my computer during office hours and seemed to like me very much, so there was never any problems. He sometimes likes to go off and play hide-and-seek, but I understand. It gets kinda boring when he has to sit in my office all alone."

Zabrowski glanced over at Toshi as he turned onto a new road. Up ahead of them were bright lights that illuminated a pair of buildings in the otherwise desolate area. "I don't know how I never made the baby connection before. He's very cuddly and gets into all kinds of trouble when at home. Very dependent too, even after all these years of me teaching him things. Very…childlike."

"That's how sparklings are," Victoria muttered as they got closer to the buildings. The closer they got, the more she could make out the stretch of runway and the few small airplanes that were lined up outside one of the buildings. It must have been a private airport they were heading to, not that that was very surprising. She bet that Sector 7 preferred to take private transport over public any day. "What happened to the project? Was it just abandoned?"

"Unfortunately no," he answered, and the guilt from earlier reared its ugly head. "After a new director was appointed to the department heading research, the project was picked up once more. I was asked on several occasions to join them, but after what had happened, I firmly declined each 'promotion'. I didn't agree with the new methods the younger scientists and engineers were applying to the revamped program. It changed from learning to understand the potential behind that source of raw energy and using it to advance our society to using it as a way to create miniature test subjects and weapons. It was something I never agreed with even if studying them did eventually help some of our field agents."

"They used them as test subjects?" Victoria repeated in horror and hugged the sparkling in her lap closer. That just synched it—there was no way inhell that _anyone_ from Sector 7 was getting a hold of one of her sparklings or mechs for that matter. "What kind of animals are you people?"

She didn't expect the glare she received from Zabrowski as he unexpectedly pulled off onto the side of the road and put the car in park before turning it off completely. Toshi wiggled out of her grasp and ducked into the back seat when the doctor shifted in his seat to fully face her. "I don't agree with many things that certain agents have done, but there are many who are like me, who joined Sector 7 to protect the millions—billions!—of people who remain blissfully unaware of the fact that there is life beyond Earth. I never agreed with what they went on to do with the—what did you call it?—AllSpark cubey thing, and I wish I had been more forceful with my complaints now that I know what it is we have done. But _you_ are just as ignorant of us as we are to your big robot friends.

"You've met Simmons and allow me to venture a guess that you immediately labeled him as and pompous, egotistical, fanatical asshole, yes?" He patiently waited for the stunned woman's nod before going on. "Well, you wouldn't necessarily be wrong about that. He is a little cuckoo in the head from time to time and could use some lessons in manners. But there's a reason he's head of Sector 7's field agents. Not because he's taken down or found more N.B.E.s than everyone else; in fact he kind of sucks at it. But because he goes out of his way to _protect_ his comrades and the innocent people who get caught in the crossfires. He works to keep the N. out of the public eye, and on a personal level, he's a very good colleague to have your back even if he is a jerk at times. He takes his position very seriously and sees it as a way to serve his country like our boys who are currently stationed in the Middle East.

"And how exactly are we to react when foreign creatures begin to fire on us, hmm? None of the N.B.E.s we have encountered whether they be big or small have treated us very kindly upon contact. We've learned over the years that immobilizing them first is the way to escape with the least amount of casualties. Toshi is nothing like the things they make in their box from the AllSpark, and even your friends have left a body count behind as they mosey along on their own business.

"So please, don't treat us all as if we are all, as you say, 'animals' when all we wanted to do was protect others. You know just as much about us as we do about your robotic friends. If there are good and bad robots, then surely you are able to understand there are 'good' and 'bad' us too. Not all of Sector 7 wants to kill, and there are _many_ things we have yet to learn and understand. In fact, before speaking to you, it was an unquestionable truth that what we fought against was nothing but a fancy robot able to make battle tactics and strategize when need be. Instead of calling us names and making me mad, which is a very hard task to do so congratulations, you should be working to make us understand what is truly happening. And I was one of those people who would sit down and listen to you."

Victoria could only stare as the doctor wound down his speech and turned back in his seat to start the old car again. Toshi carefully climbed back out of the backseat and cuddled up next to the man, softly clicking and buzzing in an attempt to comfort his agitated guardian. It seemed to help a little as Zabrowski gave the mechling a gentle pat on the helm and welcomed him to his lap. He studiously chose to ignore the woman sitting beside him as he pulled back onto the road, and they drove the short distance to the airport in total silence save for Toshi's oblivious sounds.

**)(**

Bluestreak sighed and agitatedly rocked on his wheels as he listened to the others bumble about in Sam's backyard. He would have joined them but…eh, he'd kinda learned that the average backyard wasn't designed to be occupied by multiple mechs at the same time. Him, Wheeljack, and Smokescreen had learned that _really_ early on and had made a rule of only mech walking around their backyards at one time.

It made him wonder how funny the Autobot officers looked scrambling around the yard while avoiding tiny obstacles, being seen by the neighbors and parents, and being as quiet as possible. They had to learn sooner or later that their second stay on Earth wasn't quite like the last one.

"So…"

The awkward conversation starter made Bluestreak suddenly aware that he wasn't alone. Not that he didn't know that the female human—Mikaela—had chosen to stay behind when the others began stepping over the fence into the backyard; apparently she had noticed that he was behaving and doing as Sam had haltingly ordered after jumping out of Optimus and had decided to stay behind and make sure that the unsupervised alien didn't do anything like wonder off and run over someone's pet.

Bluestreak thought she was a very smart woman when he heard Sam explaining to Ironhide what a Chihuahua was in a very panicked tone.

"Optimus told us about your home," Mikaela continued after Bluestreak made no attempt to break the awkwardness. "About that Megatron guy, Sam's glasses, and what'll happen if the bad guys get ahold of them. I've gotta admit this isn't exactly what I expected when I followed Sam earlier today."

"_Who would seriously expect any of this?" _Bluestreak wanted to ask but restrained himself. His good mood from reuniting with his comrades had turned unexpectedly sour on the way over to Sam's house, and he didn't want to accidently snap at the woman. He was just starting to worry about Victoria again. There had been no word from Wheeljack all day, which either meant that she was still in captivity or something had happened to the engineer as well. Neither of those assumptions sat well with him. He just hoped things were going better with Eric, Smokescreen, and the sparklings.

"It's just so weird," the teenager continued, and it was obvious to the sharpshooter that she was talking to fill the silent air around them. He didn't really have any problem with that either, seeing as _he_ was normally the one doing the talking anyway. Actually if he was talking he might not be in such a bad mood. "Just yesterday I was getting all upset over the fact that the only guys in my love life consisted of chauvinistic assholes and having to pay next week's rent. Today I wake up to start the day just like any other but I change it up a bit by following a cute little nerd I just met yesterday. And now I'm here, talking to a bonafide _alien_ robot.

"Not that it's so bad," Mikaela quickly amended obviously worried that she had somehow offended Bluestreak. "Here I am complaining about stuff that's small fry compared to what you guys have gone through. I'm sorry about that. I just can't wrap my head around losing everything. You guys won't let that happen to us…right?"

Bluestreak wanted so badly to assure the suddenly apprehensive teenager that no, they wouldn't let what happened to their home happen to Earth. Who would ever wish something like that onto another race? But he couldn't because he had learned that he couldn't promise anything like that beyond tomorrow. He would try his hardest—try beyond his hardest—to prevent that from happening, but right now he couldn't even protect the one human who had become like a sibling to him.

Maybe it was good thing he wasn't talking right now. Babbling something that to her wouldn't help to calm the teenager down.

A short, startled honk from Bluestreak scared Mikaela into releasing a small shriek as something heavy and unmistakably feline was flung onto the mech's hood. Bluestreak inwardly cursed as Nuisance straightened from the crouch he had been in and lowly growled at the mech that had thrown him over the fence and into the alley that the Autobot and human occupied. Ironhide snorted at the cat's apparent anger. "Watch him Bluestreak. He's on probation until further notice. Girl, get over here and help your mate find those glasses so that we can get a move on."

"Mate?" Mikaela repeated with only a tinge of embarrassment making itself known. "We're not even _dating_."

Ironhide performed the awkward version of a shrug as Jazz's helm suddenly popped up beside him. "Whatever. Just get over here and do something useful."

Mikaela huffed and slipped through the same door that Sam had while Jazz hopped the fence to join Bluestreak and Nuisance. The feline immediately went to cuddle with the saboteur but moaned in dismay when the mech pointedly positioned himself to prevent the symbiotic cat to climb in his lap. "Sorry lil' dude. 'Hide said no snuggles after wha'chu did."

_:What did he do?:_ Bluestreak asked via comm. link. Jazz was perhaps the only mech small enough now to casually sit in the back alley and still not be seen above the high fence that sat between them and the Witwicky's property. The silver mech could really make himself small when he wanted to.

"Nothin' bad, bu' ya know 'Hide. He's a strict daddy, an' when our kitty prodigy don' listen da first time, he don' get any more times." Jazz pointed one of his clawed fingers at Nuisance, who flattened his ears against his head in knowing shame. "Ya can' eat da human's patio furniture. They aint like those rust stick we spoil ya with."

Bluestreak snickered and Jazz glanced back over the fence to make sure that he wasn't needed before turning back to the younger mech. Bluestreak knew to brace himself as the TIC initiated a private comm. channel. _:Alright, it's later. Now what's goin' on Blue? Where are the others?:_

Where to begin? _:I don't know where to start. It's kind of a lot to explain.:_

_:Just give me a condensed version then. No details—just the main points.:_

And Bluestreak did just that. He told Jazz how they had found Victoria as a little girl; skipped ahead to the last few weeks when they found the sparklings; skimmed over Victoria's encounter with James and his former involvement with Sector 7; described how they had driven to California to spend time with Eric and Smokescreen; and summed up their latest encounter with agents of Sector 7 that ended with Victoria being taken and the subsequent splitting up of the group with Smokescreen and Eric taking care of the sparklings, Wheeljack going off to find Victoria, and Bluestreak having to come meet Bumblebee.

Jazz sat beside him and patiently listened to everything he had to say, admirably ignoring the unexpected crash behind them and the way the power in the house sparked off. Even when Nuisance climbed up onto one of the trash receptacles in the alley to watch Optimus and the other comically avoid being seen by Sam's parents, the saboteur simply dragged the feline back down and went back to tentatively listening.

Once Bluestreak had run out of things to relay, Jazz sat back and rubbed one of the hornlike finials on his helm. _:Well, isn't dis a pile o' slag? Ah was hopin' fo' some downtime 'fore somethin' like dis happened. And sparklings? As in _plural_? Ya gotta be yankin' my chain mech.:_

_:No chain yanking,: _Bluestreak answered somewhat distractedly. It sounded like something else was going on in the house now. _:They touched down in a Decepticon escape pod.:_

_:What would 'Cons want with a bunch o' lil' sparks?: _Jazz mused to himself as he turned around to look in the yard. He moved over to stand in front of Bluestreak before shifting down into his alt-mode, prompting the younger mech to finally notice that Optimus and Ratchet were behind him doing the same thing while Nuisance climbed back into whatever hold Ironhide had provided. _:We'll let Optimus know about dis later. Let's get dis business with da Cube settled first.:_

_:What about Vicky?: _Bluestreak asked before Jazz could terminate the private channel. Optimus was saying something over the open Autobot channel, but he was to focused on Jazz to listen in. _:You've gotta help me find her!:_

_:_After_ the Cube business,: _the officer reiterated with tone of finality that made the sharpshooter wilt. _:You said dat 'Jack was trackin' her down, right? Well, let 'im do his job. If ya aint feelin' nothin' bad through the bond, then she's fine.:_

Bluestreak retreated inward even as he followed Jazz out of the alley, Optimus and the others bringing up the rear. Of course he knew that Victoria was fine; did Jazz really think he'd be this calm if she wasn't? But that wasn't the slagging point! They needed to rescue her _before_ something happened. She'd already been in captivity for a full day and a half (going on _two_ days), and Wheeljack didn't seem to be making any headway. What happened to the Jazz that would go behind orders and rescue a comrade in need?

Wait…where were they even going?

_:Ya gotta learn how ta double task Blue,: _Jazz humorously chided as he fell back to allow Optimus to take point once they were out on the street. _:Be like me—listen ta the big man with one audio receptor and play games on a pad under da table at the same time. It's easy after da first few times ya get caught!:_

_:I heard that Jazz. And yes, I am aware that you still do that during the officers' meetings.:_

_:Whoops. Guess Ah forgot dis was an open channel.:_

Bluestreak snickered to himself at Jazz's deliberate blunder and the staticky sigh/quiet laughter it provoked from Optimus and the other two officers.

**)(**

Gotta get them.

Blackout failed…Air Force One…"Project Iceman"…download interrupted!…stupid humans shooting him…sneaky spy, he was good at hiding…Barricade pick him up…Witwicky.

Witwicky, Witwicky, Witwicky, Witwicky, Witwicky, Witwicky, LadiesMan217. Glasses!

Gotta get them. Get the glasses—get the Allspark—bring back Soundwave.

Soundwave: the Boss, caretaker, father figure. Ravage, Laserbeak, Rum–

Fragging humans! Stop squishing him against the seat.

Stupid woman. Cut his fragging head off. Now he was a phone. A glitching phone! Too small even for him.

That fragger Barricade better have gotten his body. He was cold. And itchy. Why was he itchy? Decepticons didn't itch!

Stupid humans couldn't even trade banter right. Where were those glasses?

Be like a good spy and peer out of the bag. _Slowly._ Don't get caught! LadiesMan217 won't even see his death coming; death from above style! He could do it…somehow.

If he wasn't being squished!

Stupid slagging woman. Wasn't even pretty…or smart. Or blonde. Or…smart. What was he ranting about again?

"_Focus Frenzy, you dumbaft! Now's not the time to lose your fragging processor…or what's left of it."_

His "inner voice" sounded like Rumble now. Where did Ravage go? He missed his brothers and sister; he wanted the Boss back. That glitch-head impersonating Soundwave was going down—down, down, down!

Why was he itchy!?

Focus. Glasses. Get them. _Now!_

Okay gravity! Where did gravity go? Why are the dumb humans screaming? It hurts what little hearing he has left! Bad flashbacks about a power saw—stupid woman! Now he was a phone.

Annnnd gravity's back. Just in time for said stupid woman to sit on him. Sit. On. _Him!_ Get him out of this fragging bag!

"Taking the children was a bad move. Autobots, relieve them of their weapons."

On second thought, just get off him! Keep him in the bag while the Autobots were around. He wasn't in the mood to deal with them.

…stop chatting and get off him!

Yay, air! Fresh air! Now where did the glasses go? Oh, nice move. Humans didn't like being seen without their flimsy clothes to protect them. Nice move stupid woman. A move worthy of being recognized by a master pranks–

He is being flung _everywhere! _Does the stupid woman always throw her stuff around so carelessly? Where was the respect? Respect the bag woman—_respect_ the fragging bag! And the Frenzy inside it.

…this was actually quite nice when his processor was clear enough to think about it. There was lots of running, but it didn't involve him whatsoever. He just got to swing through the air…somewhat peacefully…he could take a nap right now…

…and then there was falling. And screaming. And sudden whiplash.

This sucked. It sucked major aft! And he still itched for some Primus-forsaken reason. That aftmuncher known as Barricade better not be doing anything to him.

Wait, did that human just yell something about freezing? What was being frozen? That stupid Autobot?

_Where were the glasses!?_

Creep out of the bag; glance around; LadiesMan217/Witwicky/Stupid Human Number 2 yelling at other humans (they shall be known as Stupid Human Group 1); look behind and see—

No, no, no.

No!

NO!

Optimus was off in the distance. Picking up the glasses!

No!

He was so close!

Those were his!

Soundwave—Ravage—Laserbeak.

Glasses.

Coordinates.

AllSpark.

Fraggit!

"_You screwed up _again_ Frenzy. Why do you keep trying?"_

'Cause he was gonna do it! He was gonna bring the others back. He was gonna make them a family again and Rumble wouldn't give him those looks anymore; Rumble won't have to feel like he's gotta be the big bot; Rumble won't have to sacrifice because of him anymore.

Frenzy was gonna make it all better again

…why was he itchy!?

**)(**

_:Why aren't we following them?: _Bluestreak immediately protested when Jazz swung back on top of the bridge and transformed into his Pontiac alt-mode. Optimus wasn't nearly as limber or small and had to take the long route up there. _:They're taking Bumblebee. The glasses! And that guy down there—he's the one that took Vicky! We can follow him back to wherever he's got her.:_

_:Cool your jets lil' bot,: _Jazz replied in a nonchalant but stiff tone. The disgruntlement that hid just beneath the surface was obvious to any 'bot who truly knew the saboteur, which to a certain degree included all of the Autobots currently present on the bridge. _:Boss Bot's got da glasses, and 'Bee's…'Bee's a big 'bot. He can take care o' himself for now. And wha' did Ah tell ya 'bout Vicky? Let 'Jack deal with it like he said he would.:_

_:But-:_

_:No buts. Ah mean it.:_

_:What are you two going on about?: _Ratchet asked with cranky suspicion just dripping from his voice. Apparently he'd come down from his "high" from earlier, which Ironhide had humorously described as they chased down the Sector 7 agents that had taken Mikaela and the Witwickys, and was now just snippy with everyone. _:You better not be planning to run off! Not after what just happened. Just follow Optimus until we find a safe enough place to really discuss things. There's no telling how many of those humans are still in the area.:_

Bluestreak knew better than to argue with Ratchet and despondently rolled across to the other end of the bridge where Optimus and Ironhide were waiting for them. At this point he really just wanted this to be over and go back home where he didn't have to worry about the AllSpark and psychotic humans.

This wasn't the kind of reunion he had been hoping for.

**)(**

When things went wrong, Seekers liked to pout.

And boy, did they know how to pout. It was one of the first things the Decepticons learned upon obtaining a Vosian for a second-in-command (other than they were also _very_ easily offended and prone to lashing out at others), and they had all seen the expression on every Seeker in the army at one point or the other. But said Seekers were also in very much denial. If one was brought to the attention that they were pouting, they instantly denied having done such a childish thing and went off to pout in private. The amount of time it took for them to get over their pouting often varied from just a brief breem or two to an entire orbital cycle if the action that induced their reaction was severe.

With that said, no Skywarp was not pouting. He was just in very deep thought about his lack of success and contemplating his next move. There was big difference between that and pouting.

And so what if he'd sat there pretty much an entire solar cycle? This process took _time_ to be appropriately completed, and he was tired. Actually, he could go for cube about now; he was running pretty low on fuels. Warping around in frustration and scaring a few stray humans to make himself feel better hadn't exactly been the best plan. But he was a Seeker of spontaneity; it made him who he was!

He just should have thought through his separation from Thundercracker a little better. The cyan Seeker was one who had their rations after all. That glitch of a Cassette was probably taking his portion of them too! Greedy little glitch…

Skywarp slightly shifted the position he sat in, moving the legs he had folded up to his cockpit a little to the side and placing his arms on the top of his knees while his wings twitched against the building he sat behind. He could have _sworn_ he had felt Starscream in this area, but when he had found the area to be devoid of any Decepticons and inhabited by the harmless fleshbags that came and went every few minutes, he had started to second guess his decision to tracking down the trine leader by himself.

He wasn't stupid—he'd tried reaching Starscream over the comm. link, but the other Seeker wouldn't answer. He didn't even get a "If I'm not answering than leave me the frag alone!" kind of message. It was just annoying static. Reaching through the bond was still a huge negative too. He didn't even think that Starscream was actively blocking him anymore either, just concentrating on something else, but that didn't change the fact that he felt no pull on his spark. All of his bonds were eerily silent, even the odd ball one that didn't connect to anyone he knew.

Maybe he should just go back to Thundercracker. He really didn't want to be on his own anymore. Heck, he'd go for _Shockwave's_ company right about now. Seekers weren't meant to be alone; it just wasn't in their coding. Even if they didn't like being around others, they couldn't be _completely_ alone. Not even Starscream could manage that without becoming any crazier than he already was.

He missed Starscream. He really did. And now he missed TC. Why couldn't his trine have come back in one piece? For all their outward appearances of being dysfunctional, it had been a system that worked well for all three of them. He missed that tension between TC and 'Screamer when they butted helms over something; and those times when 'Screamer would screech at them for doing something stupid; oh, and the times when TC would just shake his head when he found his other two trine mates in awkward situations that often began as some prank Skywarp had been working on.

…pit he sounded so depressing! Well, now would be a good time to scare the new humans that kept stopping at his building. Not a lot tended to show up after the sun went down but maybe if he was lucky–

"Whoa!"

If Skywarp hadn't been the frightening Decepticon he was, he might have jumped or squealed in surprise at the sudden shout of astonishment. As it was, he merely _flinched_. And it didn't even look like a flinch; it was just like he had suddenly decided to shift his body into a more comfortable position…that involved falling over. Yes, he was much more comfortable now.

Skywarp hissed and propped an arm beneath him to lean up and glared at the fleshbag that _dare_ disturb him. The little blond boy simply continued to gape at the giant mech before a slag-eating grin stretched across his face, and he rushed over to get a closer look at the annoyed Decepticon. "I knew it! I knew giant robots were real! Are there others like you around? Can you combine together to make an even _bigger_ robot? That would be so wicked!"

Skywarp lifted a hand with the full intention of just squishing the little twerp and being rid of the kid's annoying little premature voice when he paused. The kid didn't look to be very old, but Skywarp was only guesstimating that based on his size. He was significantly smaller than the adult humans he had seen, and the oversized t-shirt and crooked cap didn't make him look any more mature. There were multiple gaps between the crooked teeth inside that wide smile, and his little blue eyes shown with an amount of awe that Skywarp had never seen directed at _him_ before.

…awe! He couldn't squish the kid even if he was annoying. He was just—dare he even _think _it—_cute._ And it felt good to have such naïve admiration aimed towards him.

Nope, he wouldn't squish the kid…yet. He made no promises if the twerp annoyed him too much.

"Whoa," the boy repeated in a much softer voice as Skywarp moved to sit back up, ducking the appropriate amount to remain hidden behind the building. The Seeker watched the human clutch the robotic toy he was holding closer to his chest with wide eyes. "This is _so_ cool. I wish I had the camera my dad got me, but I left it at his house, and mama said she wasn't going back there until it was his turn to keep me again."

Skywarp tilted his head to the side in honest confusion. That was just an…_odd_ thing to say. "What do you mean? I thought humans had familial units like we do."

The boy jolted back at the sound of the mech's voice, but the glint of awe never once wavered. "Oh man. You sound so cool! Are those wings? This is just getting cooler and cooler!"

Said wings haughtily perked up, and Skywarp couldn't help but channel his inner-Starscream with the proud smirk that made its way onto his lips. Oh yeah, he was fragging _cool_ alright: the coolest Seeker in the whole Decepticon army. Finally someone took notice of that undisputed truth! "Kid I am the epitome of 'cool'. But what was that thing about your creators?"

"My creators?" the kid confusedly as he took a seat on the dewy grass in front of Skywarp. As much as Skywarp grudgingly liked the kid (who wouldn't like someone who called them cool?), he certainly hoped that the human didn't plan on staying long. Certain individuals aside, Skywarp wasn't necessarily a big fan of humans. "Do you mean my mom and dad? I take turns living with them. Like I go and stay with my dad every weekend and sometimes during Christmas or Thanksgiving, but I stay with my mama during the week."

What? How could a family stand to do that? Sure back on Cybertron, during the "the Golden Ages" or whatever, there were plenty of single parents out there, but that was only when the other had somehow died or there wasn't any other parent to begin with. There was no "taking turns living with parents". Once a familial unit formed bonds, they stuck together. It was almost like a trine in some aspects until another bouncing bitlet came along. "How can you stand to do that? Doesn't it suck?"

The joy in the kid's eyes finally dimmed as he ducked his head to fiddle with the toy he held, and Skywarp actually felt _bad_ for him. Well that was just great—guilt to stack on top of his already depressing mood. Maybe he should've squished the kid and avoided all this.

"It does kinda suck." Skywarp focused back on the boy and found him twisting the limbs of his robot. "But it kinda doesn't. They don't yell at each other anymore, and dad doesn't leave in the middle of the night anymore. When I stay with him, we do all sorts of fun stuff together! Like he took me to a water park this weekend, which was awesome. And mama's found somebody that makes her happy, and he isn't so bad. Do you got a family Mr. Robot?"

"The name's Skywarp kid, and yeah, I gotta family of sorts. Two brothers. I don't like being separated from them."

"Where are they at?"

Skywarp nervously shuffled in his spot and stared down at the human with vivid ruby optics that easily illuminated the tiny figure sitting in front of him. The boy stared back with innocent curiosity and small amount of understanding. It was a very sad day indeed when a tiny alien understood your situation. "I'm looking for one, and the other…I kind got into a fight with him and we're not talking right now."

"Oh," was all the boy could manage as he looked back down. Apparently, the "coolness" of his robotic encounter was beginning to wear off. "I hate those."

"So do I kid. So do I." A sudden thought came to the Seeker, and the lenses in his optics contracted to focus on the boy. "Hey kid, where's you mom at anyway?"

"Oh man!" the kid shouted, jumping up from the ground in a sudden panic. "She left me in the car because she thought I was asleep. If she comes back from the bathroom and I'm not there…"

The boy's worries faded off as he dashed back around the building towards the parking lot, which only contained three cars when Skywarp peeked over the roof. He watched the kid scurry over to the van and practically dive into the backseat. Just in time too because a female human walked out of the building mere seconds after the little boy had managed to shut the door. Skywarp watched the apparent mother climb into the van as well and then it pulled out of the rest stop and back on the highway.

The Seeker released a pent up sigh and drummed his fingers against the roof of the building. What was he doing? Starscream was out there and he was just sitting here pouting! He'd wasted an entire day just doing that. It was time to get back down to business and restore his trine.

It was too bad that his newfound determination prompted him to warp out of the area before he could watch the terrified man run out of the rest stop with his pants around his knees after the terrifying bangs on the roof caused the ceiling tiles to fall on him. Skywarp would have been thoroughly amused by what his absent finger drumming had caused.

**)(**

Victoria narrowed her eyes in contemplation at the little mechling that sat across from her on the floor. Toshi stared back with equal determination and his tiny fingers twitched in readiness.

"Go!"

They both flipped the first card from their not-so-equal stacks and slammed them onto the tile between them. Toshi squeaked in happiness as his card turned out to be the higher number and collected both cards to add to the bottom of his stack. Victoria playfully glared as the sparkling stood up to perform what she was coming to learn as his customary dance of victory: both hands being flung into the air and waved around as he did a little hip shimmy. "You win again. Are you cheating you little stinker? No one can win that many times in a row."

Toshi vehemently shook his head with a strange sound between a purr and buzz escaping him. He tended to make more hybrid sounds like that then the singular growls, beeps, buzzes, etcetera that her sparklings made. Sometimes he even performed them in sequences that mimicked the sentence structures humans used in everyday conversation. But he had yet to speak English with her beyond transforming into a computer and typing out the words. Zabrowski had said that the sparkling was very fluent in the language along with many others he must have downloaded from the internet when it came to typing, but apparently even he had never heard the mechling actually _speak._

With the thought of the doctor came apprehension. He hadn't returned to the jovial person she had become used to in the short time of knowing him. Instead he had driven into the privately owned airstrip and escorted her to a private room for her and Toshi to wait in while he made flight arrangements. He had simply told her to wait and that Toshi knew how to contact him if they needed anything and just left without another word.

She honestly hadn't meant to offend the man the way she did. What she had said in the car had just come out; she hadn't even paused to think. The thought of what they did to sparklings and even full grown Cybertronians…it just didn't sit very well with her. It was like discovering some small town cult that hunted and butchered other people for sport. What they saw as hostile alien life forms had become just ordinary people to her.

But she had thought over what Zabrowski had said, and by shoving her bias and ignorance aside (because what Zabrowski had said was true; she _was_ ignorant to all the workings of Sector 7), she could see his point. No one in Sector 7 knew what they truly up against. Like James (and even herself when it came to Sector 7), they had allowed one bad encounter to shape their belief of all Transformers. Unfortunately, that encounter and others hadn't strengthened their like of extraterrestrials.

That didn't mean she liked Sector 7 though. More like she had a new appreciation of some of the individuals like Zabrowski. And Simmons was now simply an "ass" instead of a…very, very bad word.

Victoria hummed as Toshi reached across to tug on the sleeve of her shirt. She could seriously use a new pair of clothes right about now. "Alright, one more round of War and then we're playing Go Fish. I seem to suck less at that game."

Toshi emitted another hybrid purr/buzz and fell back into his tensed posed, ready to whip out a new card at the first moment he was allowed to. The woman grinned at the adorable picture he made while feeling a twinge of grief at the thought of her own sparklings. She hoped they were somewhere safe and being cared for.

The door suddenly banging open made her shriek in surprise, but Toshi was immediately up and running towards the door, jumping onto the legs of his guardian with a skill honed over time. Zabrowski widely smiled at the sparkling purring and cuddling one of his legs as he shut the door behind him with his shoulder. He held up two bags for the glaring woman to see and began to limp across the room to the table that had been shoved into the corner.

"I come bearing gifts!" the doctor exclaimed, all signs of his earlier displeasure completely gone. "Nice juicy hamburger, crispy fries, and one healthy bottle of soda from nice diner half hour away plus new clothes. They're a little big though 'cause I stole them from Lost-and-Found, but they're clean!"

He plopped both of bags onto the table and swept Toshi up into a hug that sent the sparkling into a new fit of squeals and laughter. Victoria watched Zabrowski treat the mechling like any other child, showering him with fatherly kisses and hugs. There was no longer any doubt that Toshi didn't have a good upbringing even if the man wasn't aware at the time that his former laptop was now a baby. She could see how he would be offended by being called an "animal", and the guilt from earlier just multiplied twofold.

Zabrowski dropped Toshi into one of the chairs and pulled a second one up next to him before looking down at where Victoria still sat on the floor with a deck of cards scattered around her from Toshi's haste. "Well, you gonna sit there all day? Hup hup! Your food will be getting a cold soon."

Victoria stood and popped her back to relieve the ache that formed from sitting in that position for so long before slowly walking over to join them. She pulled up the final chair but only stared at the bags before her. When she didn't immediately pounce on them like a starved animal, Zabrowski tugged the takeout bag towards him and pulled out its contents, flattening the bag to serve as a makeshift plate and pushing it as well as the bottled soda back towards her. "Eat! You sounded like you were starving earlier, so I have to make you better. Doctor's orders!"

A small smile flickered across her face as she looked down at the greasy food. "So you're going to make me better by feeding me a high cholesterol midnight snack? I can already feel a heart attack coming on."

"Good thing I know CPR." He scooted the bag closer and even picked up a fry to wiggle in front of her face. "You know you want it."

She shook her head at the giggles Toshi was attempting to stifle across the table and the sing-songy voice the doctor insisted on having. Taking the fry from his hand, she shoved it and another handful of the greasy food into her mouth. "Happy?"

"Mmm…yes!"

Victoria sighed and picked at the delicious looking hamburger in front of her. Those donuts she had had earlier in the day (or was that considered yesterday by now?) didn't have anything on that meaty wonder. Zabrowski's eyes darted across her face and he turned to the laptop sparkling that was trying to sneak a hand across the table to grab a fry. "Toshi, go pick up your cards. You know you don't leave mess on the floor."

Toshi made a sad noise but nevertheless hopped down from the chair to pick up the cards he had brought in from the car. While he shuffled around behind them, Victoria briefly glanced up at the older man sitting beside her before ducking her head in sincere apology. "I'm sorry if my words from earlier offended. I honestly didn't mean them to. It was just…what you told me was a lot to process, but I understand your anger now. Whatever Transformers you had come across first didn't leave the best impression just like the first agents I came across didn't."

Zabrowski stared at her for a hard minute before a smile broke out across his face and slapped a comradely hand on her shoulder. "That's okay! I forgive you and we can be friends again. We can even Facebook each other."

Victoria returned his smile as the guilty weight was lifted from her shoulders. Having Zabrowski mad at her was almost like having Wheeljack or her dad at mad at her: it left a terrible aftertaste and the feeling that nothing was going to be okay until they made up.

She picked up the hamburger and took a big greedy bite from it, chewing it thoroughly before addressing another matter of business. "So, when are we flying out to this mysterious dam of yours?"

The sudden seriousness that fell of the doctor was unexpected, and she was almost worried that she had said something else wrong. "Not until tomorrow morning. Lots of bad stuff is happening now, and other people are going to be riding with us."

"Other people? Can you tell me what's going, or is that too confidential?"

The doctor looked torn for a moment that lasted long enough for Toshi to pick up the rest of his cards and climb back up in his chair, putting his neat stack of cards on the table like a good sparkling. "I think…you should know. You'll probably be told anyway, but there have been some bad hacking into the national database and attempted to extract certain files—ones that concerned our 'Iceman' and Sector 7."

"So you think it's a Cybertronian hack?" Victoria ventured to guess and received an affirmative (somewhat hesitant as he analyzed the new vocabulary he was accumulating) nod. "And they're going for this N.B.E. 01 or the Cube?"

"We honestly don't know, but Sector 7 can't be secret for much longer. At least to certain people."

"Uh huh," she said with a thoughtful expression on her face as she noticed that Toshi was slowly making a little house on the table with the fries he managed to nab from her. "So what are you guys going to do about that?"

"I don't know. That's above my pay grade right now. But while they talking about attacks and stuff, I was going to show you the cube and what it creates for us to get your opinion on it. You seem to know much more than I originally gave you credit for."

"Yeah well, that took a good number of years to learn, and I've been told that I haven't even reached the half mark in my education yet."

Zabrowski just smiled and held out one of his hands. Victoria stared at it before understanding what he wanted and reached out to the grab the hand and completed the friendly gesture. "I look forward to being your student in the future."

Victoria laughed as Toshi crushed his house to reach over and grabbed their clasped hands. Once whatever was going on was all over, she didn't think anyone would mind the good doctor being schooled in Cybertronian 101. If someone did then tough cookies. The old man was really starting to grow on her, homicidal driving and all.

* * *

**AN:** For a character that was only meant to make one appearance, Zabrowski is _really_ starting to become one of my favorite OCs. He's just…XD And he likes to make dramatic entrances by banging doors open :3

Frenzy little piece in this chapter was inspired by the fact that when I was watching the movie (for like the _billionth_ time yesterday), I realized that he's actually in Mikaela's bag the whole time during that scene O.o I have no idea why I didn't realize that before, but it was a good realization as it provided the means to fill that gap in the movie and a way to show how scattered brained Frenzy now is (as Rumble described so many freaking chapters ago). So if his segment confused some of you, then good. That was actually a part of what I was aiming for ;)

And yada, yada, yada, goodnight :)

(I've gotta stop posting stuff at midnight -_-;)


	19. AllSpark

**AN:** Sorry about the lack of updating last week. If you checked out my profile during the week then you probably saw the short note I left about why that happened. In short, it was 4th of July weekend and poor lack of planning. But I'm back and attempting to make up for the long wait :)

_"Thinking"  
:Com Talk:  
_**~Bond Speech~**

* * *

A New Version of Reality

Chapter Seventeen

AllSpark

**Manipulation, fueled with good intent, can be a blessing. But when used wickedly, it is the beginning of a magician's karmic calamity.**  
**― T.F. Hodge  
**

* * *

He didn't like any of this.

Blue had just left them; sissy wouldn't stop crying; and Starry had left with Jack-Jack.

Where was mommy? He could remember her getting out of Blue to go see Starry and Jack-Jack, but she hadn't come back before Blue had started to move again. Why hadn't she been with Jack-Jack and Starry? She hadn't been anywhere the next time they stopped. And Blue had been so mad…had –had he and sissy done something wrong? Were they gonna take them back to the one-optic meanie? He didn't wanna go back!

"Um, hey…little dude."

Recall sadly clicked and turned his head to look out of the narrow space he had crawled into. The new man, the one that he had been left with, stared back at him with sad eyes that looked almost like mommy's. He looked completely different now that his face wasn't so bristly, but Recall thought that was too bad. The man had looked cooler with his hairy chin.

"Why don't you come out of there?" the man asked as he awkwardly tilted his head to see the sparkling. Recall thought about it for a moment before vehemently shaking his head. If these new people were taking them back to the one-optic meanie, then he wasn't coming out!

The man sighed and backed away, making Recall release a confused warble at how easily he had backed down. Was it some kind of trick? Was the man just waiting for him to crawl out to snatch him up like they did sissy? They hadn't put sissy down ever since they had arrived at the new house, but that might have been because sissy wouldn't stop crying. Or was she crying because they wouldn't put her down? Were they hurting her? Why was he crying behind the couch then? He had to save sissy!

Recall squawked and backed up as something suddenly appeared in his only way out. It tilted its head to the side, making its googly eyes slide around and yarn for hair flop from one side to the other. "Well hello their friend!"

Blue optics winked on and off before a tiny giggle made its way out of the sparkling. The sock puppet did a happy little bobble at the sound of the sparkling's laugh. "My name is, uh, Socko! Socko the sock puppet. What's your name?"

Recall chirruped and edged a little closer. What was this new and amazing creature dancing in front of him? Must. Investigate. New. Friend! "Recall!"

Socko jumped a little, as if shocked to hear the perfectly articulated word. The mechling noticed the jump and tilted his head as much as he could in the confined space he was in. He hoped he had said it right; that was how mommy, Blue, and Jack-Jack said it. And he had learned by now that he was _very_ good at mimicking things. He'd just never tried words before.

"Recall?" The puppet jerked back up in attention, and Recall laughed at how the eyes wiggled all around. "That's a wonderful name! Why are you so sad Recall?"

Recall frowned at the reminder, but how was he supposed to tell Mr. Socko why he was sad? He had only just grasped the ability to mimic his name, and there was so much going through his big head at the moment. He couldn't thread all of that together into one sentence, and Mr. Socko couldn't speak in the language he and the other sparklings could. But he decided to try as Mr. Socko turned completely upside down to look at him, making him giggle once more at the funny pose.

It took a couple of tries to work his vocalizer into forming the words he needed instead of the clicks and buzzes he usually used, but he was immensely proud when his head and mouth were able to coincide with thought and action, if only for a brief second. "Mommy…"

Socko's mouth moved around in a funny way, like he was thinking really hard. "Vi—I mean—mommy will be back soon. She's…she's just…doing something right now. But she'll back! Until then, why don't you come out and play? You don't want…mommy to come home and see you all sad, do you?"

She was coming back? That was great! If she was coming back, then so was Blue, and Jack-Jack, and Starry, and they weren't being sent back to the meanie! Even sissy wasn't crying anymore, which made things even better.

The mechling twittered as he quickly crawled out from behind the couch to play with his new friend, starring in wide-opticked confusion at the sight of the man sitting on his knees beside Mr. Socko. Had he been there the whole time? The man hesitantly smiled as Mr. Socko leaned forward to speak. "This is my good friend Eric. He's your mommy's brother and just a really cool dude in general. He likes playing all sorts of games, and coloring, and snuggling. He's a good snuggler."

Recall giggled as the sock puppet enthusiastically nodded along with his words, and the man behind the puppet sighed in relief. At last! The little robot child came out from behind the couch. He was starting to worry that he'd have to drag him out, which wouldn't have been a very pleasant experience for either party involved. He didn't want to upset the—what were they called?—sparklings anymore than they already were. It had been hard enough just getting them into Sha– Smokescreen's car after everyone else had left, not to mention the pretty long drive it had taken to get here. And it sounded like the smaller one had finally stopped crying too.

Eric wiggled the puppet on his hand around and spoke in the high-pitched voice he was now regretting giving the monstrosity on his hand. It was seriously starting to hurt his throat. "Why don't we go with Uncle Eric and see how Uncle Smokes is doing? Then, we can all come in and take a nap because Uncle Eric is about to lose his mind from lack of sleep."

The mechling laughed at the puppet, signaling to Eric that he might not have fully understood what he had just said. If so, then the sparkling was a little sadist who found joy in other people's pain. But that didn't really matter at the moment as the sparkling finally came to him willingly, reaching out in a motion that indicated he wished to be picked up. Eric quickly stood up before reaching down to pick the sparkling up, pausing long enough to figure out the best way to do that. He finally just decided on gripping the mechling beneath the armpits and hoisting him up where he awkwardly placed the child on his hip. It felt…weird.

"Okay, to Smokes we go," Eric announced as enthusiastically as he could in his own voice as he decided Socko had retired for the day. The sock's job had been completed. "I think he went outside with the crying one…I should probably ask what his name is too."

Recall wrapped his arms around the man's neck and silently looked around as they ventured outside onto the expansive back porch. It was a lot bigger than the one they had back at home, and he gaped at the huge expanse of land. Back home there had been trees surrounding the house, but there weren't any trees around to obstruct his new playground! The sound of metal shifting prompted him to look over and notice the new mech sitting against the house. He looked a lot like Blue!

"What'd you do to the other kid?" Eric asked, his words slurring slightly. Man, he'd gone a day or two without sleep before, but at least he had some kind of energy drink to keep him going! This was just plain torture right now. "Please tell me you didn't kill it."

Smokescreen looked very offended by comment, whether because of the insinuation of him doing such a heinous act or the insinuation that that was the only way he could make a sparkling stop crying. He ended up simply sighing and lowering his cupped hand for the human to see the sparkling fast asleep in his palm. "Wheeljack was right. She's going to grow up with a pretty strong amount of mistrust in human men. She couldn't stand me carrying her around in my holoform, but as soon as I transformed, she didn't have any kind of problem. She just rolled around a bit and conked right out."

"Well that's good," Eric said vaguely as yawn came out. After he was done, he noticed Recall doing the same before the sparkling nuzzled his pointy springs into his neck. "Can we go to sleep now? We've been up _all_ night with these two."

"You go ahead," Smokescreen answered, focusing down at the small form that was dwarfed by even his tiniest finger. "I'm good for another few hours."

"Whatever giant robot man," the human tiredly commented while turning to head back inside. There was a bed just down beyond the living room calling his name. "Anything happens just come get me. I'm pretty darn sure that by now nothing will surprise me."

Smokescreen remained silent and stared off into the horizon where the sun was beginning to peek out as Eric shuffled back through the door and into the house. Recall was all but limp in his arms now as he swayed through the house to the small room he had quickly peeked into on their arrival. A sincere sigh of relief came out of him when he reached the room, and he practically flopped down onto the bed without a second thought.

The sparkling buzzed as the jostling momentarily woke him back up before snuggling into the warm body beside him. Eric sleepily returned the favor as he attempted to find a comfortable spot. What? He hadn't lied to the sparkling about that—he was in fact a very good snuggler. Women often said it was one of his most endearing traits. And now it was sleepy time, so he was just gonna cuddle up to this little robot and-

A shrill cry from outside had Recall popping up off the bed, as awake and as alert as he had been before. Eric wiggled his head underneath a pillow as Recall began to chitter and jump around while the crying outside didn't seem to be stopping anytime soon.

He didn't like this aspect of having kids. Not at all.

**)(**

Sleeping in an airport was not a fun experience. Sleeping in an airport with kids just doubled that not-fun experience. Sleeping in an airport with a sparkling and old man that seemingly lacked off switches was enough to drive any sane person beyond the brink of insanity. Fortunately for Victoria she had had enough experience with people like Wheeljack and Bluestreak to deal with the duo until they had finally given in to the need to sleep.

_Unfortunately_, that had only given her four measly hours of sleep on an uncomfortable set of chairs she had moved together to form a poor imitation of a bed. So when she finally woke up after endless amounts of shifting and worrying about rolling off the slim surface while she slept, all she could do was stare across the room where Toshi was folded down into his laptop form with an ordinary power cord attached to him.

Imagine her intense surprise when Zabrowski had hooked up the tired sparkling the night (morning? She needed to find a clock/calendar pronto) before. Toshi's sole supply of energy for over twenty had been from an ordinary electrical cord. How could the little Cybertronian survive on just that for so long? She'd been certain that regular intake of Energon was required for any Transformer to be fully functional at all times. Wheeljack would was going to have a field day when he found out about this.

The next thing she noticed was a snoring doctor sprawled out under the table. There was a brief sense of guilt before Victoria shook it off. She was sure there were more comfortable places to sleep in the building; Zabrowski didn't _have_ to stay in this small room and sleep on the floor. There was bound to be a couch here somewhere.

But that didn't really matter right now as the young woman sat up, reaching into the air to stretch the cramped muscles in her back. This would definitely _not_ be a recurring sleeping arrangement. She was going to find a bed whether it be in a hotel or a Sector 7 cell. There _will _be a bed tonight!

…but right now a bathroom was in need.

Standing proved to be a wobbly experience at first, but her legs eventually remembered how to perform their main function and she quietly shuffled towards the door. She was and was not surprised to find the door unlocked. Zabrowski likely wanted to show the extent of his trust in her and probably rid her of the sense of being a prisoner. She appreciated the sentiment, but she knew that he wasn't necessarily the one who was able to make that call.

The hallway was almost eerily empty, and Victoria paused to stare down it in both directions. Somehow it had become twice as creepy as it had been last night, with new shadows playing along the floor and walls as the sun began its ascent outside the windows. She attempted to not let it affect her as she turned in the direction of the restroom Zabrowski had taken her to last night. This private airstrip was just creepy in general, especially since she hadn't seen another soul since they arrived.

The restroom wasn't far away, just around the corner and to the left, so Victoria didn't waste any time reaching it and finding it completely empty like she had the night before. She briefly glanced around the room before sighing and locking herself into one of the three available stalls. She supposed one of the only consolations in this situation was that the facilities were kept impeccably clean.

Once she was finished in the stall, she staggered over to one of the two sinks and blankly stared at her reflection in the angled mirror. She…had definitely seen better days. The bags that had developed under her eyes from the nights that Recall had kept her up with his constant crying were still very visible, and her already pale complexion had morphed into almost resembling a ghost. The scrap on her face wasn't nearly as bad as her fears had led her to believe, but the scabs sure didn't help the situation. Her hair could use a straighter too or a comb at the very least.

Victoria sighed and twisted the knobs on the sink to get the water flowing. Of all the things she _should_ have been worrying about at this very moment and her appearance took precedence over all of it. How stereotypically "woman" of her. She should be more concerned about the burns on her arms that were beginning to itch under the new bandages the doctor had given her last night, or the fact that her sparklings could be in grave danger at that very moment.

She cupped her hands beneath the flowing water and brought them up to splash it across her face, the cool water serving as just the right thing to fully awaken her. She trusted Wheeljack and Bluestreak (even Smokescreen really) to take care of them. Either of those mechs would put their lives on the line to make sure those sparklings stayed safe; she'd seen that in the way they treated the sparklings. She just hoped they weren't put in that kind of situation to make such a dire decision…

The woman glanced back up in the mirror and released a shrill shriek when she realized it wasn't just her image in the mirror anymore. She twisted around to glare at the laughing sparkling standing at just the right distance to look like he had been staring over her shoulder in the mirror. "Toshi you little snot! You –you're worse than my brother jumping around corners at people!"

Toshi found her angered expression to be _very _hilarious, and his adorable little laughs just increased in volume and frequency. He even went so far as to roll around on the floor laughing. _Literally._ Victoria huffed and refused to smile at the little form rolling around on the pristine tiled floor, giggling up a storm.

The fact that he had been able to purposely place himself in that perfect position _and_ sneak in so silently proved that he had planned this at some point. Maybe it even proved that he was on a much higher thought level than her sparklings, though Star would probably be closer to his level than Recall or Topaz. It still didn't change the fact that the little stinker had _planned _it.

The giggling suddenly cut off as Toshi did an expertly executed dash roll beneath one of the stalls, leaving Victoria completely speechless. It must have taken him forever to—

Victoria released her second shriek for the day as the door swung open, loudly banging into the wall. The blonde that barged in jumped back in response to the scream and immediately looked around for the cause. After finding the room completely bare, save for the brunette standing in front of the sinks, the new woman decided to focus on her. "I just heard a scream. Was that you?"

"…maybe," Victoria answered very slowly as she looked the woman up and down. Where had this woman come from? Did Sector 7 have Australians working for them too?

The blonde stared at her for a long, awkward moment before making a vague gesture with both her hands. "Well? What were you screaming at?"

Victoria stared back at her for an equal amount of time. "…myself."

"Yourself?"

"Yes."

Victoria couldn't blame the woman for giving her a strange look. That was a very horrible excuse to come up with, but what else what she was supposed to say? She was screaming at the little robot that had just given her a heart attack? Yeah, that would have sounded like she was sane.

"Maggie!" a distant voice yelled from outside the bathroom, and the blonde leaned out of the door to look at the source of it. A few seconds later had a heavy set black man standing outside the door behind her, leaning over and bracing his hands on his knees as his breathe came out in almost pained gasps. "You can't…just take…off like that! You ran off when the _Secretary of Defense_ was in mid-sentence. That's not cool! …oh God. My stomach's not over them donuts yet."

"Um, Glen," Maggie interrupted with a subtle head tilt in Victoria's direction. "I told you I heard a scream and came to find out who it was."

The man, Glen, seemed to finally notice that Victoria was standing there and jerked back up, attempting to coolly lean against the doorjamb. "Oh hi! Didn't see you there…s'up girl?"

"Great job Glen," Maggie said after another awkward round of silence, giving the man a friendly pat on the shoulder. "You just made this more awkward than college had ever been."

Glen released a loud round of laughter, stepping into the bathroom and waving off Maggie's previous statement. "She's just joking! I was the life of the party back in college. Everyone wanted to be around me."

"Glen, you just officially stepped into the _women's_ restroom."

Victoria watched as Glen glanced around and noticed the room they were in. He scratched the back of his head and took a careful step back. "Damn…this is awkward now."

"'Ello all!"

Any of the awkwardness Glen may have inspired was _nothing_ compared to what Zabrowski could do as he all but danced around the newcomers to give Victoria a strangling hug. She grunted at the strength the old man was able to exert, squealing a bit as she was lifted from the ground. If anyone had been listening close enough, they would have been able to pick up the quiet giggles coming from the middle stall.

Victoria was lowered back onto the ground but barely had a chance to notice as her cheeks were roughly squeezed together and Zabrowski moved her head around as he pleased. "I felt so sad when I woke up all alone! I almost thought you had left me. But I knew better; we have such a great connection together!"

The brunette felt a muscle above her eye twitched as she caught the looks both Maggie and Glen were sending them. And then she noticed the mischievous glint in Zabrowski. Oh…oh that _bastard_. He was intentionally making this sound sound/look wrong. Evil old man. "Let. Me. Go."

"Temper, temper," Zabrowski chided as he released one cheek to playfully tweak her nose. He ignored her dagger-like glare to twirl around and address Maggie and Glen, who both had varying degrees of surprise and disappointment (mostly from Glen) clearly present on their faces. "You must be part of Mr. Secretary of Defense's party! You better go get ready; we leave in only thirty minutes."

"So you're going too?" Maggie asked, stubbornly refusing to move even after his not so subtle hint. She crossed her arms over her chest as Victoria continued to glare at the oblivious doctor's back. "Do you know what's going on here? Because no one's telling us a damn thing."

"I know many things," Zabrowski said in a terribly "mysterious" voice that had both women rolling their eyes. Glen chuckled a bit from where he had stepped just outside of the door. "But not allowed to say anything. Bye-bye now!"

Maggie exhaled an annoyed huff but finally backed down, though she still refused to leave altogether. Victoria was caught by surprise when the blonde pulled off an elastic she had on her wrist hidden by her jacket and tossed it towards the brunette. "No offense, but you _really_ need that right now."

"Yeah, I kinda noticed," Victoria assured, quickly putting her hair up with the offered elastic. She turned her head to look in the mirror. It wasn't perfect, but it was much better than it had been before and now had a satisfied check on her "Things to Worry About" list. "Thanks."

"No problem." Maggie paused and shuffled backwards out of the room. "So…I guess I'll leave you two alone now."

"See ya!" Glen shouted before the door closed behind the woman. There was muffled conversation from the other side, but it quickly faded as the two walked away.

Meanwhile, Victoria was back to glaring at the doctor as Toshi belly crawled out from under the stall. "I hope you're happy now. There's no telling what insane conclusions they made from _that._"

"I am a very happy man," Zabrowski answered as boisterously as ever. He bent down to swoop up the sparkling that was now aimlessly slithering across the waxed floor tiles. She was starting to wonder how much of Zabrowski's strange personality the sparkling had picked up. "'Ello my little robot! You are a very naughty robot, sneaking out without me."

Toshi's scarlet optics brightened with laughter as he reached out to cling to the man's neck, rubbing his masked face against the doctor. Zabrowski reciprocated the expression of affection by placing his cheek on the top of the mechling's helm. "Ah. I love you too naughty robot."

"Are we really leaving in thirty minutes?" Victoria asked, interrupting the snuggle-fest commencing in front of her. As cute as it might have been, she still wasn't in a very happy mood with the doctor. In fact, she still wasn't all that happy with Toshi's little "prank" from earlier either.

"Yes!"

"In that case." She paused long enough to shove sparkling and man towards the door, only finding it vaguely amusing when the surprised doctor staggered backwards. "Get out of the bathroom so I can finish my personal business."

"What kind of 'personal business'?"

"What part of 'personal' don't you get?"

"Probably the 'person' part. If you haven't noticed yet, I am little socially awkward around the persons."

Victoria could only sigh as she watched Zabrowski skip out of the restroom with Toshi safely tucked beneath his arm, football style. When he was gone, she turned back to the mirror, noting once more the very minor improvements Maggie's elastic gave her overall appearance. Well, this was just going to be a _great _day…

"Wait a minute." The woman ducked out of the bathroom to catch Zabrowski and Toshi about to swagger around the corner. "What was that about a _Secretary of Defense_?"

Zabrowski spun around and lifted the hand that wasn't keeping the sparkling under his arm to cup it around his ear. "I can't hear you; you too far away now!"

"Zabrowski!"

"I still no hear you! You know what? I see you on the whirly bird; you tell me everything then." With that said, he gave her a jaunty wave and skipped around the corner with a giggling sparkling. Victoria resisted the urge to bang her head against the doorjamb and marched back into the restroom to attempt to make herself look somewhat presentable now.

Great day her freaking ass. She hadn't had one of those for a while now.

**)(**

Bluestreak sat scrunched up in the shadows of the building at his back, knees brought up to his chest, arms draped across them, and chin resting on top of those. Optimus and the others were climbing all over the building behind him, discussing their next move and analyzing the coordinates on the glasses. If he knew Jazz (and he admittedly did), then he knew the saboteur would argue for the rescue of Bumblebee, and if that went over well, then he would have a good chance of arguing for Vicky's rescue too.

Unfortunately, he also knew his commander. Optimus' spark was arguably the biggest spark Bluestreak had ever encountered. He was the mech who always gave a Decepticon a choice between fighting or walking away; he made a point to know every Autobot directly under his command, not just their name but who the mech _really _was; he did everything he could to raise the spirits of his soldiers, to keep them believing in the cause they fought for.

But he was also a military leader, a Prime. He was forced to make decisions that no mech or femme would ever dream of making. His gentleness did not extend to those who threatened the lives of innocents or the people closest to him. Decepticons had learned to be wary of the big mech, not just because he was the leader of the faction opposing them.

And sometimes he had to choose to leave soldiers because he couldn't risk others' lives. Going after Bumblebee right now would likely either result in the death of humans who ignorantly believed them to be legitimate threats or the capture of someone else. Besides, keeping the AllSpark from the Decepticons was currently more important than performing a risky rescue mission.

The sad part was that even knowing and completely understanding all of this, Bluestreak still hoped that Optimus would agree to the rescues.

A scuffling noise to his right had the sharpshooter glancing up from the pebble he had been diligently scrutinizing. Nuisance shook himself, dislodging some of the dust that coated his obsidian frame from chasing a random butterfly moments before, and all but pranced over to squeeze himself between Bluestreak's upraised legs and chest. The feline let loose a metallic purr and greedily sprawled out across the mech's lap, ignoring the subtle pushes that were meant to keep him moving.

Bluestreak sighed and simply gave into the cat's not-so-subtle demands for attention, stretching his legs out to allow more room for the cat to sprawl and using one hand to gently scratch behind the quadruped's ears. The cat acted like it was starved for attention just because Ironhide was too busy to dote on him for five minutes. He bet this all went back to those few days Victoria treated the kitten like a spoiled child; Ironhide just unconsciously supported the ideal. "Nuisance, do you even remember who Victoria is?"

Nuisance looked up at him with startlingly intelligent golden optics before rolling over on his back and wiggling around, demanding more attention. Bluestreak shook his head and gave into the demands. Spoiled cat…

"Bluestreak."

The sharpshooter immediately shoved the cat off his lap, receiving a surprised yowl, and jumped up to stand at attention like a good soldier. Optimus acknowledged the mech's quick reflexes with a nod and briefly watched a now offended Nuisance primly walk over to where the others were waiting. It was hard not to laugh at the sashaying animal now half coated in the red sand that surrounded the observatory in patches.

"Jazz has brought me up to speed with recent occurrences here on Earth. I understand how you may be feeling at the moment, but I need your word that you _will not_ jeopardize our mission by allowing those emotions to get the best you. I cannot have one my soldiers breaking off from the group to chase down a group of humans. Our priority at the moment is to obtain the AllSpark before it falls into Decepticon hands and they fulfill Megatron's vision of creating a new army.

"I will, however, give you the option of leaving now and finding Wheeljack so that the two of you may work together to find Victoria. It may defeat the purpose of your splitting up to begin with, but it may also be what is best for the both of you. Think wisely of your choices, but you must make a decision quickly. Time is of the essence."

The door-wings on Bluestreak's back agitatedly twitched as the heavy choice was weighed on him. Since when was it a good idea to have him make a big decision with almost zilch time to think about it? Though the choice was obvious; of course he was going to find Vicky! She needed him more than they did at the moment. Optimus' team consisted of some of the most highly trained mechs in their chosen field; they didn't need a rinky-dink sharpshooter.

So, he was off to find Wheeljack…except he couldn't shake this uneasy, almost nauseating, feeling deep in his spark. It was one of the most intense feelings he had every felt, and he'd only felt it once before. Something like this wasn't to be forgotten so easily because it was the feeling he had felt the day he had recklessly run out of the house, chasing down his creator and demanding to be taken to work with him. Right after the last time he had seen his carrier, busily cleaning up the mess from their morning Energon and unknowingly creating the perfect opportunity to sneak out when her back was turned. And just before Seekers and other Decepticons under Megatron's command had completely wiped Praxus from the map.

It was the intense anticipation of something horrific happening soon. _Very_ soon. The humans had a name for this feeling: premonition. He'd seen a show or two on TV with a character who would often feel the same way just before something happened, like the character's friend would get into a car accident or someone across town would get killed.

He didn't like it, and it unnerved him that the thought of leaving Optimus and the others was what brought it on. They were the most skilled Autobots he knew; what could possibly happen to them?

"Bluestreak?" The sharpshooter hadn't noticed he had been pensively staring at the ground until his head snapped up at the sound of Optimus' voice. The Prime looked slightly concerned about his silence. "What is your decision?"

"I…" Bluestreak trailed off as he looked behind the Prime to where the others were standing. Jazz caught his optic and gave him a jaunty wave, which only proved to make his tank churn even more. "I…I'm going with you Optimus. What kind of soldier would I be to abandon his own commander? Wheeljack's handling the Vicky thing; I'd only get in the way at this point. Besides, you'll need my help with Jazz around."

"Hey!" Both mechs turned their attention towards the voice and found Jazz waving a finger in the general area of the side of his head. "Hello? Special Ops over here; enhanced audio input. Ah can _hear_ you two!"

Optimus allowed a short chuckle to escape him and momentarily placed a hand on Bluestreak's shoulder to show his appreciation for the mech's loyalty before turning his full attention to his officers. "Now that that is settled, Autobots, it is time to roll out!"

"A'ight!"

"It's about time."

"You're just still all uppity about the power line incident."

Bluestreak smiled a half grin as the grouchy medic shoved the chuckling Weapons Specialist before transforming into his alt-mode, being the exact opposite of the breakdancing/transforming Jazz beside him. Optimus ignored this normal behavior and transformed, using the comm. link to relay one last simple command. _:Ratchet, no running Ironhide off the road this time.:_

_:Yeah Ratch! We can't be havin' our only medic injuring us.:_

_:And Jazz, do not encourage him.:_

_:Aw. Can't nobody take a joke anymore.:_

The sharpshooter was the last to transform and idly drifted behind everyone as they pulled out of the observatory. The jokes and good humor did nothing to negate the seriousness of their mission nor did it fully wash away dread Bluestreak felt.

Something was going to go down today, and Bluestreak didn't know if he would be able to stop it or not.

**)(**

It took Victoria one short ride in a helicopter to realize that it was going to be a day of surprises. And awkwardness. _Lots_ of awkwardness.

For instance, she had discovered to her surprise that she actually liked flying. Having never flown in any flying contraption before, she had understandably been a little hesitant to climb into one of the helicopters that had been prepared for the apparent party she was now part of. But the busy pilot had taken the time to assure her that her anxiety was common in first time flyers and would slowly fade after they had been in the air for a while, which it had.

And then awkwardness had set in when she noticed that instead of spending the ride with the two people she had met earlier—Maggie and Glen if she recalled correctly—she had to take the same helicopter as the Secretary of Defense and his little entourage. As one would imagine, sitting in a confined space with one of the members of the President's Cabinet for an hour or two tops and being unable to figure out _one_ topic of conversation to breach was a very uncomfortable hour or two. Especially when she couldn't even remember the guy's name, haven't ever been that attentive with politics.

Then Zabrowski was added to the mix. And boy, did she understand real quick why he had been so desperate to find those sleeping pills stashed away in his car somewhere. He had turned twenty shades paler before the helicopter had even taken off and had clutched the bag Toshi had hidden in tightly to his chest. To be honest, she had felt bad for the man who had had to sit beside Zabrowski for the entire ride, which of course had turned out to the Secretary of Defense himself.

Thus, the dramatic increase in awkwardness that had arose when the doctor had shrieked at the helicopter's takeoff and abandoned Toshi's bag to cling to the closest person.

Yeah…she was pretty sure she had seen the Secretary pretty much crawl over one of his bodyguards to escape the doctor's grasp.

Surprise number two had occurred on their way to their final destination. Zabrowski hadn't been in a very talkative mood when they had transferred to the SUVs, but Glen had joined them instead of Mr. Defense (as Zabrowski had shortened). The guy wasn't half bad when he wasn't attempting to flirt with her. She'd also learned that he had been dragged into all of this after Maggie had shown up at his home with a copy of an intrusion signal someone used to hack the government's computer. From the way he talked about it, she could tell that beneath his funny exterior he was a pretty smart guy.

It was too bad that half of the stuff he said about computer programming and whatnot completely went over her head.

And then they'd reached their final destination: Hoover Dam. And she hadn't been able to say a damn thing as she had climbed out of the car with Glen to join Maggie and two more awestruck teenagers staring over the edge of the wall. No…no way could Sector 7 be hiding out in a freakin' _dam_, let alone one that was open to the public nearly 24/7.

"Dam." Victoria glanced up to look at the curly haired brunet standing beside her and looking over the wall as well. "Like literally. Dam."

"That isn't even funny," the girl standing beside Maggie and Glen said without looking up.

"Well sorry Mikaela, but this is seriously the only time I will _ever_ be able to make that joke."

The familiarity of the teenager finally snapped into place with a name, and Victoria blinked in surprise. "Sam?"

Sam turned to her in surprise. "Yeah. How'd you know my name?"

Victoria stared blankly at him. "It was just a lucky guess. A very lucky guess. You look like a Sam to me."

"…okay."

Cue awkward staring, but she was starting to get used to this by now. She would be an awkward staring pro by the end of this.

"Hey I think they're leaving us," Glen commented as he pointed towards the Secretary of Defense now walking towards the other end of the dam. Victoria twisted around and realized that Zabrowski was doing the same and glared. What was the point of bringing them along if they were just going to walk off without them?

Glen and Maggie hurried after them without a fuss, and the teenaged couple followed swiftly behind them. Victoria went to follow them too before noticing the bag that had been left behind on the wall. She grabbed it and jogged after everyone. She was pretty sure she had seen the bag on Mikaela's shoulder, so the girl must have left it behind on accident.

As she got closer, she slowed her jog to a walk and stopped just behind Sam and Mikaela, who had been stopped by the one and only Agent Simmons and another man. She frowned slightly at Sam's demand for his car back, assuming that he spoke of Bumblebee which meant the scout was currently in Sector 7's possession, but smirked as she realized that he apparently knew something that neither Sector 7 agents knew and was using it to his advantage.

Simmons only noticed her after his apparent coworker had walked off with the teens, and Victoria fought the urge to try her luck at maniacal giggles when he plastered his most fake smile on his face. "Well aren't you a sight for sore eyes. I got lonely when you didn't come back to grill me for information."

"I had a little business to take care of," he vaguely responded as he stiffly shuffled his feet and positioned his arms behind him. "Sorry about my…rude behavior earlier. I see I left you with some battle scars. You know, when I shoved your face into the ground the other day. I might have been a little over dramatic about the car thing."

Victoria's smirk just grew, and she could easily imagine the harsh glare he was giving her behind his sunglasses. "Oh, this is like _physically_ hurting you right now, isn't it? To kiss the ass of a woman you arrested under your 'authority' of Sector 7."

"Don't push your luck girly. You're still just a vandal in my eyes."

The woman mockingly patted the man's arm, grinning when he visibly gritted his teeth to keep from saying something. "That's okay. I don't have to worry about you; I'm under Dr. Zabrowski's watch now."

Simmons twisted around to look behind him at the group that had assembled and grunted in surprise when he noticed the good doctor mingling with the group. "Well I'll be damned. When did he learn to shut up long enough to sneak past a person?" He turned back around to see her innocently smiling up at him and frowned. "Hey! Just because the situation's changed doesn't mean anything. I can still have you charged for—"

"'Ello good friend Simmons!" Simmons jumped in surprise as the doctor magically appeared behind him. "I see you found my lady friend. Thank you! We be going now."

"What the- how did-" the darker of the two men stuttered at a lost before regaining his dignity and stepping in front of the doctor to stop him from just grabbing Victoria and walking away. "Where do you think you're going? We've got a situation here; you can't just waltz up in here and take away one of our informants away on a whim."

"I'm an _informant_ now?"

"I get permission from Banachek," Zabrowski argued in his happy little way, both men choosing to ignore the woman's question. "So you go do your job and I go do mine. Bye-bye now!"

Victoria allowed herself to be dragged away and only glanced over her shoulder once to see Simmons stalking off in the opposite direction to join the rest of the group. She focused forward and unconsciously shifted the weight slung over her shoulder, coming to an abrupt stop when she realized she still had Mikaela's bag. "Hold on. I need to give this back to Mikaela."

"Uh, we give it to her later. No time to waste now!"

"But it will literally only take a minute. She's probably even noticed it's gone by now."

Zabrowski countered her attempts to turn around by slinging an arm over her shoulder and turning with her until they were once more walking away from everyone else. A few tourists gave them weird looks as they traveled down the sidewalk in an uncomfortably close hold. "No, no. You see, I might have lied. And I might have lied about Banachek approving of us going separate ways. And we might get caught if you go back. So solution to that problem is no going back!"

"You lied to Simmons?" Victoria repeated as she quit struggling to be released. "What's going to happen if he finds out?"

"One: he will get _very _angry. Two: he will find me later and say very bad things. Three: I will blackmail him into silence. Four: repeat until fully satisfied!"

"…do I even want know what this blackmail is?"

"If I tell you then I can't use it anymore. So no, you don't want to know."

Victoria shrugged and stepped over the chained sign that limited only authorized personal to the area beyond it. Zabrowski sauntered down the path to the little building in front of them. Victoria looked over to the other side of the dam and just barely managed to catch a glimpse of Simmons vanishing into the similar building across from them. "So where are we going that we can't stick with the group?"

"Hmm? Oh! We just going back way to see your cube first instead of N.B.E. 01. That way we not be disturbed while I show you what we get from it."

"I've got a question," Victoria said as they stepped inside the building. She sighed at the sight of stairs and hunkered down for what look like a tiring trek before her; she envied how Zabrowski's long stride allowed him to take two steps down at a time without falling. "Why did Sector 7 move N.B.E. 01 here? Wasn't anyone concerned about it waking up and taking the Cube?"

"That was way before my time, but I imagine that someone might have brought that worry up." He glanced over his shoulder to make sure she was still following. "But the thing is N.B.E. 01 has been frozen since it was discovered in the Artic. When it came time to move it, they made sure he stayed frozen. Besides they are on two different ends of the dam, so I doubt there was any concern of there being an interaction between the objects."

Victoria shifted the bag on her shoulder and sighed. These stairs were playing tricks on her head and making her think the bag was heavier than before. Stupid stairs—they should all be replaced by escalators. "So what makes Toshi so different from the other sparklings that Sector 7 has been making? I can tell that you're not willing to put them on the same level as being a baby like Toshi is."

The lighting was becoming so dim as they finally made it to the bottom of the stairs and into the opening of a wide tunnel that she almost missed Zabrowski reaching down to put a hand over the bag Toshi was still hiding in. "Well for one, they don't act like Toshi does. When Toshi was first created from the sparking cube, the first thing he did was play a game of hide-and-seek. Afterwards he had no qualms with being picked up or handled in general. I could pick him up by his ankle and dangle him above a pit of snapping alligators and all he would do is giggle. Not that I've actually tried that, but you understand what I'm saying.

"But these…things. I don't know if they are children. They wake up and the first thing they do is pull out a weapon and attack the closest person to them."

"Maybe they feel threatened," Victoria suggested as the sounds of machinery began to reverberate through the tunnel as they got closer and closer to the end of it. She crossed her arms across her chest as a stray question floated around in her head: did sparklings even come with weapons? Of course, Wheeljack had explained that sometimes newsparks were put into adult frames with weapons and all, but those had to be specially manufactured. She just didn't know enough about the AllSpark to know exactly what it did.

"Maybe," Zabrowski conceded, but his tone gave the impression that he wasn't very convinced. "But then why didn't Toshi feel threatened? Why was he the only one created without weapons? I've checked him many times over the years and have yet to find any hidden recesses containing a mini-machine gun."

Victoria could only shrug now. "I don't know, but I do know that not all sparklings behave like innocent children. I have one who bites just about every new person he meets."

"So you have one too?" Zabrowski waved his hands around to disperse the suspicious glare the woman gave him for pointing out the minor detail she had just let slipped. "I am only curious! But it does explain how you know so much about them now. I think I did very good thing coming back to speak with you yesterday."

"Well, if you think I'm an expert on them, then you obviously have no…holy shit"

"Ah ah. Language."

The woman completely ignored the older doctor and stepped further out of the dark tunnel to gap at the centerpiece of the room. The AllSpark sat almost innocently amongst the machinery surrounding it. One corner of it appeared to be embedded into the rocky walls of the dam, angled just the right way to make a perfect enclosure for the pipes and heavy duty electrical cords that were piled beneath it. Several scaffoldings constructed up the sides provided easy access to even the sloping top of the Cube.

"That –it –it's huge!" was all that managed to come out of the stunned woman's mouth as she stepped further out of the tunnel. She yelped as a small Humvee nearly ran her over, jumping out of the way at the last second and glaring after it had passed. "Hey!"

"I bet you're wishing for my driving now," Zabrowski teased as he took the woman by the arm and carefully guided her to another set of stairs off to the side. "Come, come! I'm not sure how much time we have before the rest of the group catches up. Very upset people they will be."

Victoria hummed in uncaring agreement and followed. Behind them, a silver head poked out from where he had jumped onto the back of the passing Humvee and stared at the two humans walking away. His crablike body clung to the vehicle as it swerved away, turning in such a way that the two were now blocked from his view. He mindlessly chittered to himself, attempting to figure out why the female looked so familiar, before shaking his head at the half corrupted memory files that were continuously brought up.

No matter. The AllSpark had been located. That was what was important. He would soon be able to fix everything…and he didn't itch anymore.

Double bonus.

Meanwhile, Victoria was now dubiously staring at the back of Dr. Zabrowski as he sealed the tiny room they had stepped into with the help of some nameless scientist on the other side. She glanced around at the deep gauges on some of the walls and the glass container sitting harmlessly in the middle. The equipment attached to it somewhat negated that harmless affect. "Why exactly are we being sealed in?"

"Oh you know," Zabrowski answered carefully as he walked over to one of the desks pushed into the back wall of the room. He seemed to have a silent debate with himself before sweeping his arms across the table, effectively dumping all of the files and papers onto the floor beside it. He nodded with satisfaction and placed the laptop bag he had been carrying on the table to unzip it and allow Toshi to crawl out with little hesitation. "We have to make sure nothing can get out. That's why there are no vents in here and we can only stay for ten minutes."

"Why ten minutes?"

"Because that's how long it will take for the oxygen to run out!"

Only Zabrowski could sound joyful about running out of air. The woman rolled her eyes and was about to make a comment when she noticed Toshi. Whereas she now realized that the mechling's fear upon first meeting her was nothing but the common anxiety of meeting new people, the fear he displayed now was genuine and intense. He seemed to know _exactly_ where they were and the implication of the room had him quickly clinging to Zabrowski and pathetically clicking for comfort.

The doctor could only pat the sparkling on the top of his helm as Toshi forced himself onto him. "There, there. We won't be here very long; I know you don't like it after last time. Just, ah, come here." Victoria blinked as the man awkwardly peeled Toshi's hands from his shirt before picking Toshi up and plopping the mechling onto his shoulders. Toshi's optics winked in surprise as well before he quickly approved of the new arrangement, purring in pleasure and rubbing his masked cheek against the man's thinning grey hair.

Zabrowski sighed in relief and went to digging into his bag. Without looking up, he began to answer Victoria's unasked question. "I brought Toshi here once. _Once._ I had a theory very similar to yours: maybe they felt threatened. So one day I come here alone with Toshi. Everything was fine at first—Toshi was just as curious as he always is and began to explore the room without any worry of being seen. Then I started up the machine. He just stopped and watched with curiosity. Even demanded to be picked up and see what had happened to the pager I put in the box.

"I made the very foolish mistake of thinking it would be alright to open the door. But the pager robot hadn't done anything yet; I thought seeing Toshi here had made it feel calmer." Toshi beeped in question when the doctor gently grabbed the arm the little robot had wrapped around his forehead to ensure he didn't fall off. "This was the result of that."

The doctor expertly pushed aside the pieces of the mechling's arm armor, and Victoria gasped at the deep, pearly white scar that was revealed on the sparkling's protoform. It stretched from his little wrist joint all the way to his elbow joint and would have never been seen if Zabrowski hadn't shown her. Toshi squirmed under the scrutinization and jerked his arm away, firmly wrapping it back around man's forehead.

Zabrowski sighed. "The robot attacked as soon as the box was open. Toshi was closest, so of course it went for him first. Thankfully he only received a few scratches. It didn't pull out its guns until I had flung it off and pushed Toshi behind some of the boxes over there. It managed to me a few times before Simmons had the door forced open and managed to disable it. He called me many bad names that day. And that is how our friendship began!"

"From being called bad things right after you had been shot?"

"I never said it was a nice one."

Victoria looked over at the glass box still sitting in the middle of the room, now noting the very fine scratches on the surface of the glass walls, before glancing over the top of it at the long, deep gauges displayed on the metal walls. Her opinion on the matter was already taking a nosedive, and she hadn't even seen the first sparkling. There was no way a sparkling—who for all intents and purposes should act something like Toshi or Recall—could do damage like that. Star, who was admittedly not the nicest little child at times, hadn't been able to do that kind of damage with his claws.

"Well," she finally said, turning back to the doctor who had gone back to digging around in his bag. "Let's get this thing started. You said we can only stay in here for ten minutes at a time."

Zabrowski hummed in acknowledgement and victoriously pulled a device from his bag. It was nothing special, just a simple calculator, but it apparently made the doctor happy. "Yes, let's get this show on the road! I've never used a calculator before, so whatever the results it will be interesting to see how it comes out. Here, put these on."

Victoria squeaked at the pair of goggles carelessly tossed in her direction and barely caught them as Zabrowski headed towards the glass box with calculator in hand. He placed the device in the middle of the box and locked it shut before putting his own pair of goggles on. He gestured for her to do the same as he walked over were a few levers and switches were located near the door. Toshi remained clinging to his head the whole time, watching the harmless calculator with a level of wariness that a child shouldn't possess at his age.

"This was a system vaguely based on the few blueprints my team managed to write up before…well, before all the bad stuff happened," Zabrowski commented as a way to break the heavy silence in the room. He lifted the first of three levers and continued to speak as he moved to the next. "Of course, our ideas involved the cubey-thingy's radiation being transferred into something like a generator, but it never really worked for us. Sector 7 has always had a way of staying one step ahead of today's technology, but even back then something like this was just beyond our grasp. Ready?"

Victoria nodded, barely being able to see the doctor and Toshi with the darkly tinted goggles on, and Zabrowski pushed the last lever up. A hot, intense pain suddenly flared in her chest, and she gasped at the feeling. Toshi shuddered on the shoulders of Zabrowski, seemingly just as affected as she was, but the doctor remained perfectly fine as a bright flash radiated from the box. It vanished just as quickly, and with it went the pain, leaving both Victoria and Toshi just as they were before.

The calculator sat in the middle of the box, as if the bright flash hadn't affected it all, and Zabrowski made a disappointed noise before it suddenly moved. Because of its small size, it was quick to transform, skittering around like a little beetle in the box. It didn't appear very threateningly, and Victoria chose to voice just that. "I don't see-"

Bright, emotionless red optics locked onto her person, and the new animated calculator released a high-pitched battle cry as it stood up on its back appendages, pulling out a gun from nowhere just like every other Transformer she knew. It aimed directly at her, and a spray of miniature bullets left tiny indents on one side of the thick glass. It growled as it realized nothing was happening and gave another battle cry as it charged the glass, maliciously clawing at it as it attempted to reach her.

Victoria was left completely speechless at the little Cybertronian's actions. This wasn't like anything she had ever seen before. It was like all it knew was to single-mindedly attack the closest thing to it—just like Zabrowski had described to her. She wasn't even sure if it would listen if she attempted to talk to it.

A loud whistle from the other side of the room had the beetle/calculator skittering around and mindlessly attacking the glass wall opposite to it. Toshi, who had sat straight up on Zabrowski's shoulder to call the creation's attention to him, scrunched back up to hide behind the man's head, red optics bright with fear. He glanced over at Victoria and seemed to get another sudden bought of courage as he slowly straightened back up and glared at the angrily screeching Cybertronian. With fear still fully evident in his bright ruby optics, Toshi lifted one arm to point directly at the beast in the box.

"Bad!" the mechling shouted, shocking both humans at the sound of his boyish voice. His finger wavered in the air as the beetle's screeching increased in volume but stood his ground very bravely. "Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad!"

The beetle stood to his fullest height and shrieked before sprinting towards the glass, hitting it head on with a faint "crack!" that did nothing to the barrier. It fell backwards, optics now dim as its many appendages curled up against his chest. Silence rained throughout the small room as all three stared at the box, expecting its occupant to get back up at any second. When it didn't, Victoria took a hesitant step towards the box. "Did it…did it just _kill_ itself?"

"Who cares?" Toshi squawked as he was suddenly lifted from Zabrowski's shoulders and tossed into the air. He gave a shrieking laugh as the doctor caught him, bringing him close to cuddle. "You said your first word! My little robot said his first word! True, you've typed out bigger words on your screen, but this is the first one you've ever talked. Daddy is so proud of you!"

While Toshi giggled and Zabrowski fawned over the mechling's achievement, Victoria focused on the glass box. She took her goggles off and stepped closer, hesitantly tapping against the glass. The being inside didn't move at all—not even a twitch—leading her to believe that it had offlined. Who would recklessly charge at a wall with such a speed to kill themselves? She knew that children in general sometimes didn't have the intuition of knowing what could get them hurt, but this was just so extreme. And it just woke up so…_angry_. "Can you open this?"

Zabrowski stopped swinging his mechanical son around and glanced over at her suspiciously. "Yes…why do you want it open?"

"I want to get a close look at it," she answered as she moved around the box to the little door she had watched the doctor open earlier. It had a simple little wheel keeping it sealed shut, and she gripped it between her hands.

"Wait!" Zabrowski protested and put Toshi down to rush over to her. He pulled her hands from the wheel and forced her goggles back on before reaching for a gun-like object connected to the box beside the door. Victoria flinched as the box lit up again and gaped at the charred body left behind after light had dimmed again. The man finally took his goggles off and unashamedly stared at the astonished woman. "I'm sorry, but I cannot allow the box to be opened with the chance of it still being alive. I have seen—and experienced—what this tiny creatures can do when they are freed, and the fact that this one acted the same as the many before doesn't change my opinion of them. I feel bad for having to do it…but children or not, they are still capable of killing us at their whim."

Victoria slowly nodded, a sick feeling blooming in her abdomen as she silently agreed with him. But the little bit she knew about the AllSpark through Bluestreak and Wheeljack's teachings told her that the AllSpark created life. So despite its aggression, that thing had to have been a sentient being…right?

She wasn't as sure as she had been before walking into this room.

Zabrowski moved to spin the wheel, the locking mechanism for the box clanking inside before the door swung open. He reached in carefully grabbed the now blackened husk and pulled it out for her to see. "There's something odd about all of these things that I've seen over the years. I don't know if it's because we limit only small devices, like phones and pagers, to become animated, but they've always looked like bugs to me. Very few coming out looking like Toshi and the big ones, which is why those were always kept alive and…I think you understand where I'm going with this."

Victoria nodded and took the burnt body from him, weighing it in her hand. It was very light and just barely bigger than her hand. Just the size of it made it hard to believe it could be such a threat. She used a finger gently uncurl the pointy arms that had automatically curled inward to its chest and poked around in that general region. There was one thing she wanted to see, one thing that would put her mind to ease. Or begin another downward spiral of guilt.

It took a while for her to find what she was looking for because the body was so tiny, but eventually she did find the familiar latches that kept the chest plate closed. She gently unhooked them and pulled the chest open. Zabrowski watched her, eyebrows slightly lifting in amazement at how easily she managed to open the thing up. For all of Sector 7's apparent knowledge of all things Cybertronian, finding a way to open them must have never evolved past using saws and some kind of metal cutters.

The man's amazement took backseat though as her own astonishment became apparent. She held the body closer to her face to get a better look, twisted it around to look at different angles, and even carefully pushed aside some of the wire and other internal parts of the beetle-bot. But the results remained. "There's no spark chamber."

"What?"

"There's no spark chamber," Victoria repeated in confusion, again twisting the frame every which way and almost desperately searching for the missing part. "But that's impossible."

"I'm sorry, but what's a spark?"

"The very core part of life for any Transformer. A spark is like their soul; it create such deep connections between them that humans could never imagine being able to experience. They can also take damage that would outright kill a normal human and come out fine as long as their spark is unharmed. To keep it safe they have a part called a spark chamber inside of them. Along with being protected by the outward armor, it's like an added force of protection and keeps the spark from simply dissipating into the air. Because if a spark is damaged beyond repair, that's the end of their life.

"But there isn't any spark chamber!" Victoria reiterated at a complete loss. Zabrowski vigorously nodded as she shoved the husk towards him. "So there was never any spark, which doesn't make _any_ sense. Wheeljack drilled it into my head that a spark couldn't survive outside a constructed spark chamber or it would just fizzle out and disappear. The AllSpark makes sparks—it's how it makes life! You used the energy from the AllSpark, so it should have one. But it doesn't!"

"…is that bad?" Zabrowski quickly waved his hands around as the woman viciously glared at him. "I'm sorry! I just don't really understand. So it didn't have a spark? Does that mean it was never actually alive?"

Victoria shook her head and used the hand not holding the dead calculator to massage her temple. "I don't know—that's what's so frustrating!" She glanced down when she felt two tiny hands pulling on the hem of her shirt. Toshi released one of his hybrid noises—a cross between a deep purr and a whistle—and took a step closer to her, silently demanding he be picked up. She sighed and gave the doctor the calculator she held to pick him, a smile breaking out on her face as the mechling ducked his head to cuddle against her chest. "You've gotta spark, right little guy?"

Toshi nodded and looked over his shoulder to glare at the thing Zabrowski held. "Bad. Not good. Make center hurt."

Victoria tilted her head in question as the doctor had another spasm of joy at hearing Toshi speak. He completely missed how the mechling gestured at his chest where the spark chamber was usually located. "It made your spark hurt?"

Toshi hesitated before nodding. "You too?"

She didn't have a chance to respond as a sudden loud banging reverberated through the small room. Toshi was quickly placed back on the table where he transformed and was placed back into the laptop bag. Victoria stayed behind Zabrowski as he helped unseal the main door and fought the urge to wave at an angry Simmons on the other side. "_Zabrowski._"

"Friend!" the doctor gushed, any of the seriousness that had been exhibited since separating from the group completely flying out the window as he tackled the Sector 7 agent. "I missed you! Aw, why you look so mad?"

"Dr. Zabrowski," the balding, mustached man she had briefly seen earlier said, stepping out from behind Simmons to address the older man. With the man's appearance, Victoria leaned to the side to see the rest of the group and found that more people had joined the group as well. Fairly attractive men. In uniform. And then she spotted Glen smiling and waving at her, prompting her to automatically smile and wave back. "This conduct will be addressed at a later date. At this moment we have more urgent things to attend to. Please, step outside and wait until we have finished."

"Okie-dokie!" the older man brightly agreed, not being at all intimidated by his obvious superior. He ducked past Simmons and noticed the military men just as Victoria had, stopping briefly to give them salutes and continuing on his way.

Victoria smiled up as Simmons (just to rub her presence in a little more) but didn't have the courage to look the soldiers in the eye. She did, however, stop in front of Mikaela and hand over the all but forgotten bag she had been carrying around with her. "Here, you left out on top of the dam."

"Oh God, thank you," Mikaela said, taking the bag and putting it over her own shoulder. "I went back to get it, but it was already gone. I thought I had completely lost it."

"With all this crazy stuff going on, it's nice to know at least one thing turned out good," Victoria responded. She could feel her face reddened when she noticed one of the soldiers staring at her and quickly abandoned the group to catch up Zabrowski, who was doing the exact opposite of what he had been ordered to do and was practically skipping away. She caught up to him in no time and walked beside him, arms tightly crossed over her chest. "So what are going to do while we wait?"

"Hmmm…you like coffee?"

"No. I've told you that before."

"Good! Then we take a coffee break."

Victoria rolled her eyes and just followed him, glancing over her shoulder to look at the AllSpark one last time before they entered another room. The Cube seemed to shimmer just before it was blocked from sight, and she felt abrupt shiver travel down her spine along with inexplicable thought that flashed across her mind.

What if the AllSpark knew and didn't like what Sector 7 was doing to it?

**)(**

There was a certain feeling that Wheeljack had developed over the many years of his long career to anticipate his, uh, more exciting experiences in the lab. It was a feeling he had learned to separate from all the others and fully understand. If he were honest with himself he had to. Who else was going to shout for everyone to duck for cover seconds before one of his beautiful explosions happened?

Not Perceptor, that's for sure.

So he didn't like when that feeling began to develop the closer and closer he got to Hoover Dam. Something was going to happen when they reached it; he could feel it. But he wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing. It could just be that they found Victoria there. Or he could somehow be killed in a most dramatic and tragic way.

Hey, he said he had developed the feeling to anticipate things, not that he actually _knew_ what was going to happen.

"Star?" he prompted, switching the radio off to speak through it. The Seekerlet grunted but didn't look up from the coloring pad he was drawing in. He had already used up half of the sheets since getting it at the very beginning of their trip. Wheeljack suspected that by the time all of this was over they'd need to get the mechling another. "When we get to where we're going, I want you stick with me okay? There are going to be a good bit of humans around, and I don't want you to get lost. You also need to do anything I say. If I say hide, you hide; if I say jump, you jump. Got that?"

Star looked up from his pad to glare at the radio. Of course he "got that" as the engineer had put it. That didn't mean he would actually _obey_ though. He wasn't jumping for no reason; he'd look stupid then.

"Good," Wheeljack continued, unaware of the Seekerlet's rebellious thoughts. "Victoria will be here. I can feel it."

Or something else was going to happen. Either way, he was assured that Hoover Dam wouldn't end without proving to be a good choice of destination.

* * *

**AN: **Mission City is next. Yay (I suck at action scenes :(). Then the "First Movie Arc" or whatever will be over :D. I'm never writing something so closely related to the movies again. Ever. These last few chapters have annoyed me for the simple fact that I had to watch that movie multiple times to make sure I didn't screw anything up. So there…I say that knowing that later I'll be writing DOTM :P.

It's late for me, so good night all :D


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